Biography

NANCY SUE (JENKINS) MARTENS


Nancy was born in Akron, Ohio August 12th, 1930; she graduated from Old Trail High School in Akron. She attended Hood College in Frederick, Maryland and graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with a degree in Education. She was a member of Delta Delta Delta Sorority.

As a teenager she was active at the Cleveland Skating Club and was a competitive ice skater in pair skating with her brother Hayes Jenkins. Nancy earned her United States Gold Medal in figure skating in 1948.

After graduation she was married to William (Bill) Martens who had just received his commission as an Ensign in the US Navy. Three years of active duty on a destroyer, including several six month deployments with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean involved several moves about the country with their first son, David.

The family lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan while Bill was in graduate school at the University of Michigan. Their second son, Bill, was born just prior to a move to Rogers, Arkansas. Nancy was twenty-nine years old while in Rogers when she suffered a sudden onset of Multiple Sclerosis, which had a significant impact on her life for the next fifty years. Somehow she managed to maintain her always engaging smile and an upbeat attitude that allowed her to make friends easily, many friendships lasting her lifetime.

The family moved to Ohio after five years in Arkansas to be closer to family and to better manage her health. During these Ohio years Nancy was a homemaker, a loving wife, a caring mother who, in spite of a constant battle with her MS, took an active interest in her community and in the education and activities of her children.

Nancy was an avid reader and traveler. After a 1976 cruise in Europe she found that shipboard travel best matched her physical limitations and she had many opportunities to travel worldwide for the next thirty years.

The family resided in Bryan, Ohio for thirty years prior to retirement in 1992 then alternating between Bryan and a winter home in Oro Valley, Arizona. She loved the mountains and the sunshine and a permanent move was made to Arizona in 2004 She was fortunate to be able to spend many years enjoying her grandson Hayes, son of David and Claudia and the last few years with new granddaughters MarLu and MarLea, daughters of son Bill and his wife Lu.

Memorial Service

Monday February 1, 2010, 2:00 PM at Mountain Shadows Presbyterian Church
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