Memorials › Nina Jacquelyn "Jackie" McKinzie Simpson
Nina Jacquelyn "Jackie" McKinzie Simpson
2 Oct 1934 – 5 Mar 2012
| Birth | 2 Oct 1934 |
| Death | 5 Mar 2012 |
| Cemetery | Tyler Memorial Park and Cemetery Tyler , Smith County , Texas , USA |
| Added by | Gail McKinzie Clark on 27 Apr 2013 |
| FaG | https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/86648140 |
Bio
Services for Nina Jacquelyn "Jackie" McKinzie Simpson, 77 of Tyler, are scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, March 10, at Burks Walker Tippit Funeral Home, Tyler, with the Revs. Paul Bennett and Elwood Stetson officiating. Burial will be in Tyler Memorial Park Cemetery. Jackie Simpson passed away on March 5, 2012, from complications of a lifelong struggle with anorexia. She was born on South Vine Avenue on Oct. 2, 1934, to L.D. and Earlene (Shackelford) McKinzie, the second child and oldest of four daughters. Jackie attended Gary Elementary, Hogg Junior High and Tyler High School, a lifelong member of the "Girls of '53." She attended TJC, where she was an Apache Belle, and then graduated from TCU in 1957. Jackie lived in Tyler's historic Charnwood district. Her family was among the first settlers in East Texas. She was a member of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and the Pilot Club and a lifelong member of the First Christian Church. Jackie retired from UT Health Science Center after 25 years as a social worker. She then became the first social worker at The Hospice of East Texas and later worked at Hospitality House. She carried a significant role in the founding and development of Holt House, a resource center for "growing older better," contributing physical labor, ideas and political support for this institution in its early days. Although Jackie lived most of her life within a 10-block radius of where she was born, she traveled to Paris and Normandy, France, where she visited the graves of American soldiers at Utah and Omaha beach, and to Little Cayman Island where she stayed with her family at the diving resort established by family friend Gladys Howard. She also loved to visit New York City to spend time with her son Scott, his wife and her granddaughters, and to travel with The Girl Cousins to slumber parties in New Mexico. As Clarence the Angel told George Bailey, one can never truly know how many lives a single person touches. Jackie touched many families through her work as a social worker and her care and love is felt through generations of her extended family and beyond. The encouragement and support that she gave her son to achieve Eagle Scout is now being passed on through his work with a new generation of Scouts in Northern Manhattan, who have been able to broaden their horizons by travel throughout the U.S. and around the world. Jackie was preceded in death by her parents, her brother, Donnell McKinzie, and one nephew, Mike McKinzie. She is survived by her son, Scott Simpson, and daughter- in-law, Kathy Simpson of New York City; and three granddaughters, Olivia Simpson, 24, a Ph.D candidate in computer science at the University of California San Diego, Layla Connelly, 21, who will graduate this year from St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill, N.Y., and Sara Simpson, 21, a flight attendant for Piedmont Airlines based in Charlottesville, Va. Jackie is also survived by her four sisters, Lanna (Laverne) McKinzie Seidel and Lois McKinzie Adair of Tyler, Fredda McKinzie Lambright of Grapeland, and Dr. Jackie Jarzem of Austin; and by 12 nieces and nephews, 21 grandnieces and grand-nephews and five great-grand-nieces and great-grand-nephews. Source: Burks-Walker-Tippit Funeral Home, Tyler, Texas
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