Dennis Eugene Adkins

Dennis Adkins, Sr. died in Cincinnati, Ohio, Monday, March, 18th, 2024, after complications with a fall and terminal illness.

Born August 2nd, 1946, in Tampa, Florida, to Thelma Ferguson (Adkins) and Welford Adkins, Dennis grew up in Lafayette, Indiana, where he met and married his first wife and shared the birth of three children, two daughters and one son.

Dennis struggled with his own demons and was estranged from his children for most of their adult lives, periodically reaching out to them as a lifeline for his own human condition. Raised in a time where mental illness was shrugged off and deemed "not our problem," by society, we are left to wonder if his life and relationships could have been more fruitful with proper mental-health care.

Dennis loved deeply, but paranoia stole meaningful relationships from him and left him victim to fear and manipulation. The periodic olive branch he extended hinted at a truly haunted man who longed for love but didn't know how to regain it.

Across time, we, his first family, understood that Dennis possessed love, compassion and generosity, to a fault, but the demons he never slayed left him always angling for a lonely outcome and alienated him from all his biological family members. In his death, may he find the peace that seemed always out of reach for him and the walls that his mental illness constructed fall to reignite relationships among his own family members in his absence. He may be gone but he is not forgotten. Our loss reminds us of the importance of mental-health and the desperate need for societal awareness.

Dennis is survived by his daughter, Angela Adkins-Miller and her husband, Dr. Daniel Miller; daughter, Anita Daniels, and her husband, David Daniels; six granddaughters-Araelle Chavis and her husband, Joe Chavis, Cassady Miller and her husband, Dylan Pflanz, Sadie Miller and her husband, Stephen Quinn, Gabriella Miller, Ashley Daniels, and Olivia Adkins; six grandsons-Tristan Miller, Hagan Miller, Maddox Miller, Christopher Daniels, Nathan Daniels and his wife, Anna Daniels, and Ethan Adkins; and three great-granddaughters-Sophia, Aria and Tahlia Chavis; sister, Deborah Hitch, and her husband, Jonathan Hitch; and niece, Stacy Adkins. He is also survived by close friend, Marina Berenson, her daughter, Victoria, and son, Oleg, and other extended family and friends.

Dennis was preceded in death by his son, Dennis Adkins Jr. on February 19th of this year (2024), his nephew, Jack Etter, on August 18th, 2019, his mother, Thelma Adkins, on December 9th, 2007, and his father, Welford Adkins, on May 11th, 2002.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI.org) on his behalf.