A Picture D is Worth More Than a Thousand Words
ale and Debra Jenkins began dating when he was a senior and she was a sophomore at East Rutherford High School in Bostic, North Carolina. “I thought she was cute,” Dale Jenkins recalled. “She was a cheerleader, energetic, had a big smile on her face and a very bubbly, outgoing personality. I thought she’d be a good person to know.” They married in 1979, moved to Raleigh shortly thereafter and were together for just under 41 years until Debra passed away at UNC Rex Healthcare in 2020 from Multiple Systems Atrophy, a rare neurodegenerative disorder. After his wife passed away, Jenkins and his three adult children asked those who wanted to honor her memory to make donations to the Rex Healthcare Foundation. “At Rex, Debra received personalized care with a sense of compassion,” said Jenkins, a former chair of the Rex Board of Trustees. “We picked Rex because it’s been such a big part of our family.” Debra Jenkins
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