Barbara Williams Jenkins

Dr. Barbara Jean Williams Jenkins, of 102 Boundary Street, Manning, passed away on Thursday, October 27, 2022, at Prisma Health Toumey, in Sumter, SC.

     Barbara Jean Williams Jenkins came into this world on August 17, 1934, in Union, SC, a blessed gift to the wedlock of Ernest Nesbitt Williams and Johncie Sartor Williams. Her father, nicknamed “Nez”, was from Elloree, SC, but started his career with the SC Dept. of Agriculture by assignment to Union County, SC.  Johncie, her schoolteacher mother, a recent Claflin College graduate at the time, was a favorite daughter of Union and a scion of the Sartor (father) and Sims(mother) Families there. Both of Barbara Jean’s parents were regular African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church members; thus, she was introduced to AME church history, traditions, and values at an early age. Though she ended up being the only child of Nez and Johncie, and, undoubtedly, quickly became the perennial “apple of her daddy’s eye”, her life’s story after migrating from Union to Orangeburg, SC as a young child showed her, over the years, not at all to be a spoiled child or wholly self-absorbed adolescent or egocentric young adult. Rather, the theme and watchwords of Barbara’s life after her formative years were and are commitment to and service for those folks and institutions that shaped her upbringing, and to which she gave back again and again as Barbara Williams Jenkins, PH.D.----her family; her church; Claflin College and South Carolina State University (SCSU); Delta Sigma Theta sorority, The Links ,Inc., and  the NAACP; various library and historical associations; and students of  plus advocates for the history of African Americans in SC in particular, and the Black Diaspora of the rest of the world in general.

      Barbara’s formal schooling began at the Felton Training School in Orangeburg. She went on to then racially segregated Wilkinson High School, where she not only excelled academically, but also performed as a majorette. For college, she matriculated at Bennett in Greensboro, NC, then on to the Univ. of Illinois in Champaign for her Master of Arts degree. Though Illinois was surely no utopia in the mid-1950s, a “colored girl” from SC had more opportunity for graduate school education in ‘The Land of Lincoln’ than in her home state, where, until just a few years ago, the Confederate Flag flew over the capitol in Columbia, SC. In 1957, with the ‘Civil Rights Movement’ in full swing as it battled “Jim Crowism” across this land, Barbara began her career back in Orangeburg as an academic librarian at SCSU; by 1962, she had moved up to become SCSU’s library director. Well aware of technological changes in library operations and wanting always to keep SCSU up to speed scholastically, she took an extended sabbatical from SCSU to pursue her doctorate in library science at Rutgers University in NJ in the mid-late 1960s. After this rewarding hiatus in her library career, she again returned to historic Orangeburg where, circa 1987, she was promoted to the rank of Dean of Library and Information Services at SCSU.

       Concurrently, and now fortified with updated bibliothecal skills, she was able to look beyond SCSU’s campus and set her sights on the forgotten, untold, and sometimes erased history of past labors and achievements of Black folks in SC, and how such affected race relations over the years in The Palmetto State. Her efforts and accomplishments in this additional phase of her professional life are well chronicled in the recently written and posted tribute by colleagues Abel Bartley and Jannie Harriot, former chairpersons of the SC African American Heritage Commission, upon learning of Barbara’s death: “…. She was a wellspring of knowledge about the African American community in SC. No one who ever met her could forget her distinctive voice, as she called out your name. A fierce defender of her state, school, sorority, and family, Barbara was a special gift loaned to this complicated state…. Barbara forgot more about African American history than most SC historians know. She was a fount of information on African Americans in SC. She was instrumental in building the SCSU Historical Collection, where she and her staff oversaw and augmented special collections. Barbara was an invaluable source to the SC African American Heritage Commission……. She was obsessed with making sure that there were historical markers in every county of SC. She wanted a historical record documenting the African American contributions to the state. She was also dedicated to ensuring that every SC Welcome Center had information on African American monuments, events, and resources. She served as the first African American president of the SC Library Assn. She also served on the American Library Association board and was inducted into the SC Black Hall of Fame...” Journalist and author Adam Parker, of the Charleston (SC) Post & Courier, adds the following to document her contribution as a self-styled SC historian, in addition to her SCSU library duties: “……Her work helped convey African American history into the mainstream, leading to the establishment of the SCSU Historical Collection, SCSU Historic District , and the ‘Green Book of SC’…..{which} featured historical sites first documented by Jenkins, and compiled  by the WeGOJA Foundation on behalf of the SC African American Heritage Commission…..”

      Along similar lines, she was one of the original historians of her extended Williams Family, whose roots go back to Elloree, SC, where her paternal grandparents, Robert Lee and Mamie Carrion Williams, started and fashioned their household together after their Claflin College romance blossomed into holy matrimony ---not long after the “Reconstruction Era” of US history was terminated by the progenitors of “Jim Crow”. After researching, configuring, and circulating the first Williams Family tree, circa 1983, she went on to, in essence, serve as a ‘Queen Mother’ of that Elloree branch of the Williams Family for the generations that have followed to this day.

      But, library functions at SCSU, extracurricular work on historical projects, and social activities with sorors, neighbors, and fellow bridge club members do NOT always make for a whole life---even for a busy professional in academe like Barbara. So, when school educator and coach Robert “Bobby” Jenkins, a favored son of Manning, SC, asked for her hand in marriage in 1980, she responded affirmatively, and soon moved to Manning not only to be Bobby’s wife and life’s partner, but also to become a new, transplanted member of Trinity AME Church there. For over two decades, including her retirement years after leaving SCSU, her daily world was anchored by two towns---Orangeburg and Manning---and two houses of worship----Williams Chapel AME and Trinity AME. Unfortunately, The Lord called Bobby Jenkins home in 2005; adjusting to a widow’s life in her adopted home of Manning was emotionally difficult, but she ultimately elected to live out her remaining years there---without her cherished companion, Bobby.

      As a result of her union with Bobby Jenkins, she leaves to mourn her passing two children: daughter Pamela Jenkins Yancey (Michael) of Danville, VA, and son Ronald Jenkins (Jackie) of Charlotte, NC; and six grandchildren: Ashton, Michael II, and Andrea, parented by Pam & Michael, as well as Jeffrey, Bennie, and Robert (Crystal), parented by Ronald and Jackie. In addition, mourning her loss are six remaining Williams Family first cousins: Howard Williams of Virginia Beach, VA; Samuel Williams of Lexington, SC; Gloria Williams Gleason of Atlanta; Natalie Williams of Sumter, SC; and Sidney E. Williams and Paul Wms. Carryon, both of Chicago, IL, along with a host of younger cousins and in-laws from the Williams, Carrion, Jenkins, Sartor, and Sims families. Also, amongst her bereaved are the former colleagues, co-workers, sorors, and friends from all the aforementioned activities and organizations with which her life’s trajectory crossed paths. To quote again from the SC African American Heritage Commission’s former chairs: “…We will never fully realize what we lost with this death. The knowledge, the experiences, and the presence cannot be replaced.”           

       Funeral Services for Dr. Jenkins will be held at 11 AM Monday, November 7, 2022 at Williams Chapel AME Church, 1198 Glover Street, Orangeburg, with Rev. Dr. Stanley Rivers the Pastor officiating.  Burial will follow in the Belleville Memorial Gardens.

    Visitation is scheduled from 2 until 6 PM Sunday, November 6, 2022 at Williams Funeral Home of Elloree. Masks will be required for persons visiting the funeral home and attending the services. 

In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that donations be made, in her honor, to one of her affiliated organizations.  A named scholarship in her honor, is planned at Claflin University and South Carolina State University, at a later date.

     Online condolences may be sent to the family via [email protected]. Friends may also call the funeral home. 

The Funeral Services for Dr. Jenkins were streamed live via FaceBook on the Williams Funeral Home page and can be viewed via the following link:

https://fb.watch/gFgNqPOPVX/