Leila "Jayne" (Hake) Shook/Jenkins

Leila Jayne Hake, known as Jayne (“Jay-nee”), was born on Wednesday, April 17, 1928, in the rural area of North Beaver Township, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. She was the seventh child born to George Hartman Hake and Margaret Matilda (Doutt) Hake, both of whom were descended from German immigrants. George and Margaret had met in the New Castle area, were married in December 1914, and started a large family. The Hake’s lived at various locations in North Beaver Township and Mahoningtown, before purchasing a farm in early 1925 along the northern banks of Hickory Creek near an area known as Willow Grove.

Jayne was born on this farm as the country was in the midst of the Roaring Twenties, a time of great economic prosperity. Jayne’s father George held a steady job with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company (PRR) and was able to provide a decent living for his family. The farm, about fifty acres in size, was in an area just northwest of Willow Grove and along the northern bank of Hickory Creek. Today this area is known as Lawrence Junction. George operated a small working farm but mainly concentrated on raising poultry. Jayne grew up in the Willow Grove area, attended the Madison Avenue Christian Church in Mahoningtown, and went to schools in Mahoningtown, West Pittsburg, and Mount Jackson. Her parents eventually had four more children between 1929 and 1939.

The Stock Market Crash of October 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression would have a profound effect on the Hake family. Jayne’s father George would only work sparingly on the railroad during the next decade and things were undoubtedly very tough during this time. Faced with mounting debts George was forced to sell off the farm in 1937-1938 and relocate to a house at #502 Montgomery Avenue Extension on the extreme southern edge of Mahoningtown. This house sat on the southwest corner of the intersection of Routes 18 and 108 (known as “the Y”), exactly where the bridge on Route 108/Mount Jackson Road currently spans the Mahoning River.

In June 1942, when Jayne was seventeen, she completed the eighth grade at the West Pittsburg Public School and was approved to attend high school. Among her eighth grade classmates were Charles DeMarc, Mary Jane Tanner, Steve Pavlovich, and June Isabella. I believe Jayne attended high school at the North Beaver Consolidated High School in Mount Jackson, but withdrew during or just after completing the eleventh grade in mid-1945.

Jayne started dating a man named George Moses, the son of Charles and Thelma (Alberts) Moses. George was a U.S. Army member who later served as a New Castle policeman. Years later he owned several local bars and other businesses and was involved in Lawrence County politics. They had two children together: Judy Ann Moses born in August 1946 and Timothy Moses born in January 1950. Jayne and George parted ways a few years later. George, who remained close to his children, later died in August 1972 after a battle with liver cancer and his remains were donated to the Science Department of the University of Pittsburgh.

She met a man named Walter Shook and they were married in about 1958. Walter, over fourteen years older than Jayne, may have served a city fireman at one time. He was a professional bowler and managed several bowling leagues in the New Castle area. I believe their marriage lasted only a few years. In the early 1960’s Jayne, who had worked at the S.N.P.J. Lodge for a time, she found employment as a housekeeper at the Almira House in New Castle, where she would work for over thirty years.

On March 13, 1965, having finally met her longtime love, Jayne was remarried to Fred Thomas Jenkins. He was one of six children born to George and Laura (Cartwright) Jenkins and had a fifteen-year-old son, Frederick Allen Jenkins, from a previous marriage. Jayne and Fred were joined in marriage by Justice of the Peace Pauline Isaac, at her wedding chapel south of New Castle in Moravia. Fred was employed as a security guard with the Kilgore Detective Agency (based in Sharon) and the owner of Freddie’s Tavern at #812 Morton Street in New Castle.

They soon made their longtime home at #837 Lathrop Street in New Castle, the house where Fred was born and raised in and his mother resided in until her death in March 1966 (his father had passed away back in June 1952). I believe the house was later divided into several apartments, one of which was occupied by Fred’s brother George (“Dodo”) and his family. Fred and Jayne began attending the Third Presbyterian Church on East Washington Street.

Jayne’s two children grew up, graduated from Union High School in the mid to late 1960’s, were married, and soon started families of their own. Both of them remained in the New Castle area.

Jayne and Fred both retired by the early 1990’s and settled into retirement on Lathrop Street. Fred passed away at the age of seventy-one on Friday, November 10, 1995, in St. Francis Hospital in New Castle. A viewing was held from 2:00-4:00pm and 7:00-9:00pm on Sunday at DeCarbo Funeral Home in New Castle. A memorial service, presided over by the Reverend Hendrick Bossers, was held at the funeral home at noon the next day. Burial followed in Oak Park Cemetery.

Jayne lived on until she passed away on the night of Thursday, March 2, 2006, in the Edison Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in New Castle, where she had been living for a while. She was seventy-seven years old. A viewing was the held on Sunday from 2:00-4:00pm and 7:00-9:00pm at the DeCarbo Funeral Home in New Castle. A memorial service, presided over by the Reverend Dennis Bupp, was held at the funeral home at noon the next day. Jayne was subsequently laid to rest next to her husband Fred in Oak Park Cemetery.