Longevity came from ‘a good Christian life’

Friday, Dec. 1, 2006 | 7:20 a.m.

After putting in a good day's work as a housekeeper, Easter Jenkins loved nothing better than to kick back and listen to recordings of spiritual favorites from The Clouds of Joy and the Gospel Tornados.

A granddaughter of slaves who started doing domestic work in Louisiana mansions at age 10 and who retired as a Las Vegas Strip resort and private home maid at age 81, matriarch Jenkins enjoyed life's simple pleasures and was deeply devoted to her family.

"My mother's legacy was that she was a good Christian woman who would rather see her children and grandchildren have things while she often did without," said one of Jenkins' four daughters, Joyce Williams.

"She had few material things. One was her 1960 Pontiac that she drove until the motor fell out of it."

Easter McCall Jenkins, who worked in the homes of prominent Las Vegans, died Saturday at her Las Vegas home. She was 99.

The cause was congenital heart disease, her family said.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of 55 years will be 11 a.m. Saturday at the Greater Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church at 1915 Lexington St. Visitation will be 2-7 p.m. today at Thomas & Jones mortuary at 310 Foremaster Lane.

Jenkins was a mother of six, including two children who preceded her in death, a grandmother of 33, a great-grandmother of 78, a great-great grandmother of 51 and a great-great-great grandmother of numerous progeny.

"She once said she thought she would live to be 120 like one of her aunts," Williams said. "She never drank alcohol and never smoked, but she always ate whatever she wanted. She credited her longevity to living a good Christian life."

Born Sept. 15, 1907, in Tallulah, La., she was the first - and the last surviving - of 13 children of Jim and Victoria McCall. Easter was named after a grandmother.

She married laborer Andrew Jenkins in 1927. He preceded her in death in 1968. She never remarried.

Jenkins moved to Las Vegas in 1951. Over the years, she worked for several Strip and downtown hotels, including the Stardust for 15 years and El Cortez for about five years.

Jenkins also is survived by three other daughters, Ruth M. Hart, Maggie Mitchell and Margaret Wilson, all of Las Vegas; and sons-in-law Sam Hart, Willie Wilson and Willie Williams.