Thelma Lee Jackson
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Thelma Lee Jackson was the Sunday school supervisor at Thomas Chapel Church of God by Faith in Jacksonville Beach for more than 50 years and also ran the soup kitchen. A church building on 3rd Avenue South is named in her honor. Her daughter, Mary Francis Gilbert, was the first Kirkland grandchild born at the Beaches.
Images
Thelma Lee Jackson
Jackson McNeil Center at 932 3rd Ave. S. Jacksonville Beach, Fla.
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
Thelma Lee Jackson was born in Alabama on April 26, 1912, and was the oldest daughter of Lee and Ida Kirkland. Her husband, Henry Wesley Jackson, moved to Florida in 1940 to work on a construction project at the Florida School of the Deaf & Blind in St. Augustine, Fla. In 1941, Thelma and Henry rented a house at 106 6th Street South in Jacksonville Beach. In 1945, they moved to their own house at 936 2nd Avenue South. Henry was a carpenter employed by the B.B. McCormick Construction Company and later Ponte Vedra builder Rex Thames Sr. He died on Dec. 31, 1989. Thelma died on March 24, 2020, and is buried in an unmarked grave next to husband.
Sources
Polk Directories (1941, 1945, 1950)
The Beaches Leader, "Cemetery was a labor of love for Kirkland," July 21, 2010
Mary Francis Gilbert