Vergie Church Jennings
Telecommunications worker and small-business owner
Vergie Church Jennings, a telecommunications account manager who owned a sewing business, died of cardiac arrest Feb. 4 at Sinai Hospital. She was 80 and lived in Ashburton.
Born in Baltimore and raised on North Paca Street, she was the daughter of Leroy Church and Georgia Carter.
She attended Samuel Coleridge Taylor Elementary School, went to Booker T. Washington Middle School and was a 1960 Western High School graduate, where she excelled in academics and was a threesport athlete.
“Even in the ninth grade, at Booker T. Washington, she was bright and mature,” said Milton A. Dugger Jr., a lifelong friend. “She was popular with the girls and the guys in our school. She was reliable and very sincere in family relationships. She was an excellent conversationalist and excelled at dressmaking.”
She married Larry E. Jennings Sr. as she graduated from Western High School. They met through friends when Mr. Jennings was serving in the Navy at Bainbridge in Cecil County.
“Her early adulthood was spent taking care of her young family,” said a family obituary.
She later earned an associate degree from Baltimore City Community College. She then received a degree in business and finance from the University of Baltimore.
“She dedicated her life to others,” said her husband. “She was outgoing and enjoyed her time with a large circle of friends.”
She worked for Baltimore City Public Schools as a permanent special education substitute at Pimlico Elementary School after her children had gone off to their own schools.
Mrs. Jennings became a finance manager for the Park West Medical Center. She later worked in telecommunications at MCI and Espire for 10 years as a corporate and government account manager.
“My mother was a warrior for her family and friends,” said her daughter, Georgia Marie Jennings. “She supported my father as he built his business and they walked through life leaning against each other and taking care of their family.”
She ran her own sewing business from home making women’s clothes, bridal gowns and hats.
Mrs. Jennings was a skilled knitter who made sweaters, hats and booties for family and friends. She briefly taught sewing skills to special needs students at the Community College of Baltimore County.
She and her friends had outings to the Horseshoe Casino.
She enjoyed spending time at her family’s vacation home in Oxford on the Eastern Shore.
“She sat on the deck watching the sunset. She was, undoubtedly, the best granny,” said the family obituary. “She took her grandchildren to Druid Hill Park, a favorite place, and taught them to love nature the same way she had done for her own children. She taught them about horticulture and gardening and took them to the park pool as well.”
“She took them to the beach on long, hot summer afternoons. As they got older, she became a trusted confidant continuing to offer the same love and support,” the obituary said.
Survivors include her husband of 64 years, Larry E. Jennings Sr., a retired contractor; a daughter, Georgia Marie Jennings; two sons, Larry E. Jennings Jr. and Lance Jennings, all of Baltimore; two brothers, Thomas Church, of Baltimore, and David Reid, of Woodlawn; a sister, Nicole Reed, of Tampa, Florida; 11 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Services were Feb. 17 at the Morgan State University Chapel.