Jenna louise hawkins welch 1919

Jenna Hawkins Welch, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and friend, passed away on May 10, 2019, in Midland, Texas, at the age of 99.

The only child of Jesse and Hal Hawkins, Mrs. Welch was a true daughter of West Texas – a woman who loved its people, its wildlife, and its land. Born on July 24, 1919, in Little Rock, Arkansas, she was raised in Canutillo, outside of El Paso, Texas, one block from the banks of the Rio Grande.

Jenna Hawkins was ten when the Great Depression hit. Almost daily, she watched carloads of Midwesterners and Southerners pass by along Highway 80, fleeing both the Depression and the Dust Bowl for the promise of a better life in California.

Her parents ran a \tourist court\ of one-room cottages that surrounded a single communal bathroom, where travelers could stop to sleep, shower, and buy a few p