Myra Jenks: |
Anyone who has lived in Merriam for any length of time either knows Myra Jenks or has heard of her. She has been one of Merriam's head cheerleaders, involved with the city for years.
Jenks, 87, has lived in Johnson County for 75 years. She was born in Aurora, Mo. When she was 12, after living in Kansas City for several years, her family moved to Johnson County. Jenks attended Merriam Elementary School and what is known today as Shawnee Mission North High School, where she played the bass fiddle. Her three children—Sherry, Harry, and Julia—and her five grandchildren matriculated through the same schools. She and her future husband, Harry, were friends while attending the two schools.
In 1945, Jenks accompanied her friend, Betty Jane Beaver, to a Women's Army Corps (WAC) recruitment center and took the physical exam, believing she wouldn't pass—but she did.
In February of that year, at age 21, Jenks became a member of a special unit of the U.S. Army called the Purple Heart Battalion. Her enlistment was for 18 months. The purpose of the battalion was to train women to be nurse assistants or medical clerks at Army hospitals, relieving corpsmen for duty overseas.
Jenks was sent to Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., for six weeks known by military personnel as "the tortures of basic training." Each day began with rising at 6:00 a.m., followed by calisthenics, marching, KP, latrine duty, and white-glove inspections. The women lived out of foot lockers and ate not-very-tasteful food.
"We had to eat everything on our plate," remembers Jenks. "Many a time I wrapped my food in a napkin, shoved it in my pocket, and deposited it in the nearest trash can."
After finishing basic, Jenks received four more weeks of training to become a medical clerk.
The WACs did not receive the respect that their military brothers enjoyed; the unwritten philosophy was that "war was for white men." Women, African-Americans (including Tuskegee Airmen and WAAF pilots), and members of other ethnic groups were considered incompetent. Some people brought the alarming prospect of sex between the service men and women into the argument.
WACs were not allowed to enter the entertainment units known as USOs, and Jenks cannot forget that "the majority of the population in every town looked down on us."
Even Harry, Jenks' future husband, who was courting her and who had served in the Battle of the Bulge in Germany, disapproved of her joining the WACs. In fact, recalls Jenks, "He sent me a nasty letter when he found out I had joined." Jenks didn't hear from him again while he was overseas.
Jenks served at the Winter General Hospital in Topeka, Kan., where she was in charge of the Office of Sick and Wounded. Later she expedited the discharge of soldiers at Fort Crook in Nebraska, which also housed German and Italian prisoners of war.
Harry and Myra did get past their disagreement about her stint in the military, and they married in June 1946. Shortly afterward Jenks was discharged as a staff sergeant. Until Harry's death in 1992, the running joke between them, since Harry was discharged as a private, was that Myra always outranked him.
Jenks has been active in her community for more than 60 years. When her children were young, she was a Camp Fire leader and a den mother. She was an adviser to the Johnson County Museum for 10 years, and has been a member of the Irene B. French Community Center foundation, as Jenks says, "forever!" She sits on advisory boards for the Merriam Visitor's Center and Merriam Parks and Recreation.
Jenks joined the Merriam Christian Church in 1939 and has been a deacon and an elder there. She is the oldest living member of the church, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2012.
Jenks has been president of the Merriam Historical Society for several years and is knowledgeable about local history. She co-authored a book with former Mayor Irene French titled Historic Merriam: The History of Merriam, Kansas. For a copy, call 913-322-5550.
The Merriam Chamber of Commerce gave Jenks its Citizen of the Year award, and she received an appreciation plaque from the city. She has been the grand marshal of parades and worked with the Shepherd's Center in Overland Park. She volunteers at Shawnee Mission Medical Center and has received a 4,000-hour award. For the hospital she works at home, sewing stuffed animals, eyeglass covers, and pillows. Every child who enters as a patient receives a stuffed animal.
Longtime residents like Myra Jenks, who have given unselfishly to their country and their community over the course of a lifetime, make life better for all of us.
