Jennie (Belk) Doyle

Lenore Belk Doyle, 101, died Saturday, April 28, 2012 at Craighead Nursing Center in Jonesboro. She lived most of her life in the Hoxie area serving her family, church and community. Jennie Lenore Belk was born September 26, 1910 to Joe and Edith Belk at their family farmhouse two miles west of Hoxie. The fourth of their six children, she graduated Hoxie High School in 1928 after excelling in literature, Latin and dramatic performance. Lenore survived a tornado that struck Hoxie High School in the 1920s by moving to a different desk, moments before the roof crashed in. On a later occasion, she was able to walk away from a wreck after a train struck the automobile she was driving across the Iron Mountain tracks at Hoxie. She married Roy Jefferson Doyle on October 30, 1931 as the Great Depression was beginning, and she gave birth to their three children in the separate decades of the 1930s, '40s and '50s. Widowed in 1960, she finished raising a daughter and raised her youngest son alone during that decade and, in the 1970s and '80s, she helped her oldest son in raising his four boys after their mother died. During her active years, Mrs. Doyle taught children's classes in Sunday school and vacation Bible school, sang in the church choir, and served as a communion steward at the Hoxie United Methodist church where she was a member for more than eight decades. She was a member of the Women's Society for Christian Service (WSCS), the organization that later became United Methodist Women (UMW). In the 1990s, Mrs. Doyle created a dramatic monologue in which she appeared in character as Susannah Wesley, the mother of Methodism's founder John Wesley, presenting that role in a number of United Methodist churches in the area. She was in her eighties at that time. Serving as a 4-H club sponsor, Mrs. Doyle wrote and directed original dramatic productions for the young participants, once taking her club to Fayetteville for a state competition. Mrs. Doyle was active in the Home Demonstration Club, the Hoxie Garden Club, and a group of women who enjoyed producing hooked rugs, one of her favorite activities. At the time of her birth in 1910, many states including Arkansas did not allow women the right to vote. By the time she came of age in the early 1930s, women's suffrage had passed and Lenore exercised that right regularly, voting in elections that ranged from the Roosevelt era to the Obama era. An avid reader and lover of all things English, she was well acquainted with the literature of William Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, Agatha Christie, and the King James Bible. Some of her poems were published in magazines and newspapers. One of her favorite places was the Lawrence County Library in Walnut Ridge. Appreciating the importance of music, she traded fresh eggs to Mrs. S.L. Richardson of Hoxie for her daughter's piano lessons. She loved Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. Before becoming severely hearing impaired, she enjoyed listening to music programs on KASU. In fond memory of her husband Roy, and of her brother-in-law Lloyd "Red" Cochran, she liked to check in on the St. Louis Cardinals. Lenore's independent personality and quirky frankness sometimes caused older family members to roll their eyes; younger members found Grandma to be refreshingly – in their words – cool. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren have been known to quote this saying of hers: "Don't worry so much about what other people will think. Most of them do so very little of it anyway." Mrs. Doyle was preceded in death by her parents, Joe D. and Edith Belk; a sister, Josephyne Belk Smith; three brothers, Harry Belk, Sidney Belk, and Wilfred Belk; and a grandson Matthew Belk Doyle. Survivors include her sister, Isabel Cochran of Piggott; one daughter, Nancy Doyle Oldham (Daniel) of Little Rock; two sons, James Roy Doyle (Vivian) of Jonesboro and Michael Belk Doyle (Robyn) of Sedgwick; seven grandchildren including James Steven Doyle (Jan) of Columbus Miss; Philip Hunt Doyle (Diane) of Little Rock; Timothy Bergen Doyle (Misty) of Jonesboro; Debbie Oldham Clement (Scott) of Little Rock; Cathy Oldham Sanders (Kraig) of Little Rock; Libby Doyle James (Zach) of Sedgwick; Daniel Scott MacGregor Doyle of Sedgwick; one step-grandson Tony Leblanc of Jonesboro; thirteen great-grandchildren, four great-great grandchildren, and seven nieces and nephews. Send Flowers & Gifts

Jennie (Belk) Doyle

September 26, 1910 - April 28, 2012