Tessie Henry, 83, San Francisco
Tessie Henry loved going to church, listening to the blues and being with her family — and of those, church might have come first. After retiring from her job as a postal worker, she worked as a hostess at Cornerstone Missionary Baptist Church in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco for over 20 years. She especially looked forward to Mother’s Day, when she would gather at Cornerstone with family members from across the Bay Area.
“The ironic part about it is, me and my sister and brother are Catholic,” like their dad, daughter Natalie Berry said. “But one of the things we would do is go to the Baptist Church on Mother’s Day. That’s the only reason why the pastor and his wife knew who we were.”
Henry, the daughter of civil rights historian Inez C. Jackson, who now has a library named after her in San Jose, was born in Dallas but spent her childhood in San Jose.
On March 27, Henry died of COVID- 19 at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center, at the age of 83. “The virus robbed us,” Berry said. Henry loved the blues, and she and her children would attend the Monterey International Blues Festival every year. She loved B. B. King, Johnny “Guitar” Watson and Etta James, but her favorite artist was her husband, Napoleon “Nap” Henry. A guitar player for the Fats Gaines Orchestra, he caught Tessie’s eye while playing at a club in San Jose. “I believe my mother was a groupie,” Berry said with a laugh. After they married, the couple moved to San Francisco, and both worked for the United States Postal Service.
After Nap died of a heart attack in 1998, Henry relied on her sisters, Mary Knights and Agnes Bailey, for comfort and support. After they both died, Henry’s eldest daughter, Debra Holloway, moved in.
“Everybody said God f irst, family second,” Berry said. “[ My mom] has f ive siblings, and four had passed away before her. She nursed every single one of them until their last breath.”
As a hostess at Cornerstone, Henry comforted mourners at funerals, handing out tissues and hugs. Her children missed that comfort at the small funeral they held for her in Colma.
“She was the glue that held the family together,” Berry said. “Once you outlive everybody, you turn to the ones who are there.”
Henry is survived by her younger brother, Cass Jackson; her children, Debra Holloway, Natalie Berry and Robert Henry; nine grandchildren; and five great- grandchildren.