Featured Resident – Jenny Covington

Jenifer “Jenny” was born in Dallas, Texas, to Jimmy and Shirley Higgins. She was the middle of three children –having one older sister and one younger brother. She grew up in Grand Prairie, TX. The family lived on a dead end street and all the neighborhood children would play baseball at the end of the street. She would also go crawdad fishing in a nearby creek. Jenny’s parents were devout and made sure the family attended the United Methodist Church in Grand Prairie.
Jenny liked school well enough. She was never active in extracurricular activities but did enjoy reading and dreaded math. She graduated in 1968 from Grand Prairie High School.
She continued her education by going to keypunch school.
During her sophomore year of high school, she started dating a young man from her church. Jack Covington asked her out to the movies. They went and saw “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” That was the start of a beautiful love story. A little over two years later, Jack took Jenny to a park in Arlington, TX. They were walking and came to a bridge that spanned a creek. Jack chose that moment to propose and she said YES! Six months later, they married in August 1969. Jack and Jenny bought a house in Arlington, TX, because Jack was teaching at Arlington High School. The couple had two children – Chris (1973) and April (1976).
Jenny has had a variety of jobs over her lifetime. Her first job was at Blue Cross and Blue Shield in downtown Dallas. She went to work for the Dallas Times Herald inputting ads and copy. After five or six years, she went to work for Sanger Harris (now Macy’s) in new accounts. She worked there for ten years and then went to work for GTE (now Verizon) as account support. Her office was at DFW (Dallas Fort Worth Airport).
Jack and a friend of his had a ministry in the area as chaplains. His friend moved away and Jenny worried about Jack going on calls alone. So what did she do about it? She went to school for three years and became a Chaplin. She and Jack worked a ministry team and still do today.
In1999, the couple moved to Belton, TX, to be close to a sister and brother-in-law. Jenny went to work at the Stagecoach Inn in Salado, TX, as a cashier for five years and at a drugstore in downtown Belton for ten years.
The couple moved to Gas City, Indiana, in 2009, to be near their son and his family. Their daughter-in-law was a pastor at the local Methodist church. Jack and Jenny started attending there. Jenny spent lots of her time with her grandchildren. Their son’s family was transferred and Jenny was left with time on her hands. So she went to work at the church. She worked there as the church secretary for six years. She also taught a woman’s Bible study during that time. She then retired. Jack had already retired but had started teaching online college classes.
The couple had a home in Gas City, IN, and leased a house in Belton, TX. They spent spring and summer of each year in Indiana and fall and winter in Belton, TX. They decided to move closer to her daughter who had been asking them to for a while. So they moved to Westbrook Villas in October 2021. They had to move stuff from both Indiana and Texas and consolidate it here in their apartment.
Jenny loves how centrally located Westbrook is. It’s not far from anything they need or from their daughter’s family who live in Holt. She is appreciative of how safe she feels here at Westbrook. It’s harder for her and Jack to take care of each other and being here gives peace of mind. She also likes that all her needs are provided for her.
Besides their son and daughter, they have a son-in-law and five grandchildren – Jeni, Grace, Bethany, Carter and Daniel. Her words of wisdom to them and you are “Don’t get so involved in your work that you forget there are other things in life. Be sure to devote time to your family.”
Jack and Jenny are currently leading the Bible study, “O God! What a Character!” on the first and third Wednesday evenings at 6:00pm.