Nora May Jenks died at home in Oak Harbor on March 21, 2006, just nine months short of reaching her 100th birthday. Nora was born in Los Angeles on Nov. 18, 1906 to Arthur and Mary Smith, and graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1924. She worked for several years as a switchboard operator for the telephone company, then as an assistant and model for photographer-naturalist George Elwood Jenks. She married George in 1930, and they had three children, Hal Dana, Robert Gail, and Norma Jean.

Nora was widowed in 1946, and later attended Vander Bie School where she learned negative retouching and photo coloring. She moved to Medford, Ore., in 1956, where she continued doing negative retouching and photo coloring for several more years. She then worked in health food stores until her retirement at age 72. Nora enjoyed gardening and handcrafts, and was a member of Trinity Bible Church in Medford. She moved to Oak Harbor in 1999 with her daughter and son-in-law, Jack and Norma Sladko, and lived with them until her death.

Nora was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Everyone who knew her loved her for her sweet and gentle spirit. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, brothers Albert and Lewis, and sisters Florence and Dorothy. She is survived by her sons Hal Dana Jenks of Longmont, Colo., and Robert Gail Jenks of Cabazon, Calif., and daughter Norma Jean (Jenks) Sladko of Oak Harbor. She is also survived by eight grandchildren, Michael Dale Jenks, Larry Dean Jenks, Deborah May (Jenks) Orr, Karen Fay Jenks-Kubitschek, James Edward Jenks, Linda Katherine Jenks, Jeffrey John Sladko, and Michele Dawn Sladko, and 11 great-grandchildren.

There was a private memorial service for the family at her home, and her gravesite is at Hillcrest Memorial Park in Medford, Ore., where she is buried next to her mother, Mary Francis (Rowe) Smith.