Melvina Agnes Thornton Jackson

Melvina Agnes Jackson, daughter of George and Minnie Lee Thornton, departed this temporary life on July 25, 2012 to join her eternal Father, Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The richness of her life on earth is difficult to completely chronicle in this treatise. Melvina was born in Elberton, Georgia on May 11, 1916. The family moved to 309 E. 23rd Street in Baltimore, Maryland in 1922. She was educated in the Baltimore City Public School System and graduated from both Frederick Douglass High School and Cortez Peters Business College as Salutatorian. She was a secretary at Glenn L. Martin during the early part of WWII. In February, 1942 Melvina married the soldier, Earl Ward Jackson, who lived across the street. That year she began a career with The Afro-American Newspaper and for the next eighteen years she not only served as secretary to the advertising manager, but she was also the travel editor for the paper. She took deserved pride in relating how during segregation, she traveled to every state and throughout the Caribbean, so that the Afro could publish where Colored Americans could procure lodgings for both vacations and conventions. In 1962 she left the Afro for a position with Maryland State Department of Vocational Rehabilitation until she retired. After retirement Melvina worked from home part-time as a transcriber for a psychiatrist. Melvina started her Christian journey at Ebenezer Baptist Church where her father was a deacon, and concluded it at St. Gregory The Great Church after converting to Catholisism. She followed the example of her parents by being an active member of the church. She helped start a ministry for unwed and single mothers at St. Gregory’s, and she employed her talents as a typist to prepare hundreds of eulogies for parishioners, family and friends. Melvina loved God and her family. Although, physically, she did not give birth to any children, she had many children by her love. She became guardian of a great-niece, and Melvina opened her home to many family members as a house of refuge during times of emotional and financial distress. Her home was the location of many of our most significant celebrations, cook-outs and gatherings. Not only because of the pride she and Uncle Earl took in setting the example of home ownership, but because of the love and care she took when welcoming all to their home. Aunt Melvina was preceded in death by her parents; four brothers, Clarence Thornton, William Thornton, Earl Thornton and James Thornton; a sister, Lillian Bates; nieces, Audrey Brown, Doris Payne, Pamela Thornton and Paulette Thornton; nephews, Vernon Lightfoot and Donald Thornton. She leaves to mourn: nieces, Betty Burwell, Carolyn Thornton, Brenda Royster, Joyce Thornton, Carolyn Thornton, Sharon Thornton and Genevieve Thornton; nephews, Ernest Thornton, James Michael Thornton and Kevin Thornton; cousins; and a host of great, great-great and great-great-great-nieces and nephews; and dear friends.

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Melvina Agnes Thornton Jackson

May 11, 1916 - July 25, 2012