Suwayne Loafman JENNINGS

Retired special education teacher Suwayne Jennings died on Christmas day at her home in Carmichael. She was 95. The only child of Wayne and Emma Loafman, Suwayne moved with her parents from her native Miami, Oklahoma to Long Beach, California during the "Dust Bowl" of the 1930's. After her husband joined the navy in 1943, she went to work in the Long Beach shipyards as one of the original "Rosie the Riveters." A graduate of California State University, Sacramento Suwayne was an early recruit into the state's pioneering special education movement in a teaching career that spanned 25 years. For 54 years, Ms. Jennings was a member of the First Baptist church of Fair Oaks. She was preceded in death by her husband of 74 years, Harold Jennings, and survived by three children: Noralee Jennings-Bradley of Sacramento, Peggy Mckenzie of Citrus Heights, and Wayne Jennings of Rescue, along with six grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren. Mrs. Jennings's family plans to hold a private memorial service for her in the coming weeks.