Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 14

THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC B2 TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2005 Sunday: History People Monday: Life Moments Tuesday: Life Remembered Wednesday: History People Thursday: Arizona Diary Friday: Traffic Alerts Saturday: Making a Difference FAMOUS LAST WORDS Charles Beard: "Tell my former friends in New York that the old man looks as if he might live 10 years longer." Soon after making this prediction in 1948, the historian proved himself wrong by dying that same year at the age of 74. The progressive Beard, a Quaker, was active in opposing the United States' entry into World War II. Source: Famous Last Words (Workman Publishing) REMEMBEIRED A LIFE REMEMBERED JENNINGS FAMILY PHOTOS During the early 1950s, Leola and Renz L. Jennings were known around the Valley for being good square dancers (left). At Leola Reenter) takes a break from horseback riding.

She didn't ride horses much, but did enjoy exercise in the fresh air. (left). Above, a 20-something Leola Jennings beat cancer twice, lived with zest v. k1 OAhi I IF WA I' lv 1 7 WiO died. Her daughter Julienne died of complications of multiple sclerosis at the age of 75.

With Leola's death, family members have been remembering the matriarchal hand she had. They think about how she was a woman of contradictions. She could be quite proper with family members but in the early 1950s had cut up the floor square-dancing with Renz and her friends. She loved holding court in her home but was equally at home traveling the world. She wasn't a cookie-baking grandmother, handing out apples or prunes instead.

But she had a secret. She was a chocoholic. She was sentimental and kept almost anything and everything, but her home was always pristine. And while she was raised Mormon and respected Mormon culture, traditions and teachings, she never practiced the faith. Leola was generous but could also remember a loan she made to you.

She would forgive half the loan if you promised to give her another grandchild. She could lavish attention on someone but was also happy when it was lavished on her. And, of course, she was really happy if you asked her age. Especially if you guessed too low. Survivors include son Renz; daughter Joyce; sister Margaret Steverson; seven grandchildren and 12 By Connie Cone Sexton The Arizona Republic Leola Jennings had a thing about her age.

How old am I she would quiz new acquaintances. They would offer some guess, and Jennings would smile like a Cheshire cat. Hardly anyone would ever come close, thinking her decades younger than her actual age. Jennings would correct them, gleeful that she had fooled someone yet again. To understand her delight was to know that Jennings had a thing about growing old.

She loved it. She tackled living longer with the zeal of a 20-something beginning an exciting job. She was just plain determined to keep going. She ate the right things, slept when she needed to, exercised religiously and kept sight of a goal: to live longer than her Aunt Hilda, who made it to 108. Everyone was sure that if anyone could do it, Leola Le-Sueur Jennings could, even though she had been hit twice with breast cancer.

When cancer wouldn't let go a third time this past spring, Jennings grew weak and fell a few years short of Hilda. The longtime Phoenix resident died June 17. She had made it to 101, well, 101 and a half, she would have you know. Family members weren't used to seeing her so sick. It seemed sudden.

Hadn't it been Leola LeSueur Jennings in 2003 at age 100. among strangers when Renz began a political career. He became the Maricopa County attorney and later a state Supreme Court justice. Leola baked pies, held teas and helped out at Democratic fundraisers. The two had four children, three girls and a boy.

She loved her children and adored her grandchildren. But one of the happiest times of her life in 1976 became one of her saddest. Her daughter Elaine, 37, had given birth to twins. Only one lived. Elaine's sorrow was coupled by the breakup of her marriage.

One day, Elaine went to her parents' house, went into a bedroom with a gun and committed suicide. Leola was rocked by the death but knew she had to carry on. She helped raise Elaine's children, the surviving infant and Elaine's two other young ones. The loss showed her family how stoic she could be. She believed in feeling grief and then moving on, not wasting much time.

She had what some called iron determination. It wasn't the last time that an unexpected death would push Leola to tap her inner strength. In 1983, she was outside while her husband, Renz, was swimming. He apparently had a heart attack, and Leola, who didn't swim, tried to pull him out of the pool. Renz was 84.

Another great loss came about a month before Leola In a photo from the late 1940s, Leola and Renz L. Jennings pose with their four children. Renz is between them. Their daughters are (from left) Joyce, Elaine and Julienne. just the other day that she was giving someone a fitness challenge? Can you do this, she would tease, bending forward at the waist, planting her palms flat on the ground.

Maybe her survival stems from good genes, a zest for life that was came from family members past. She was part of a pioneer Mesa family, part of a lineage, she would tell her children, who came to the United States via dangerous ocean crossings and long perilous treks across a rugged continent to create new lives. Her mother's side of the fam ily came from the French Islands; her father's from Sweden. Both sides arrived as Mormon converts. Her parents met in St.

Johns and married. When Leola was 1, the LeSueurs moved to Mesa. She became the oldest of eight children. She received her teaching degree from Tempe Normal (now Arizona State University). She married Renz L.

Jennings, a young attorney from Taylor, in 1927 but had to keep it a secret. Females could be married but they couldn't be married and teach, in those days. The couple moved to Phoenix and to make ends meet, Leola traded her grand piano for 22 acres on 38th Street south of Indian School Road. Leola milked the cow, raised chickens and traded items with the neighbors to get by. She taught music and penmanship.

She went back to college for two more years to have a four-year degree. She used the family car; Renz would hitchhike to work. The personalities of Leola and Renz became, evident as they socialized. He could endlessly banter; she was reserved, not given to chit chat. But she didn't hesitate to be Crews attend land before monsoon rains Morris guilty of slaying of 5 women by strangling "Cave Creek Complex" fire Acres burned: 248,310.

Start date: 4:45 p.m. June 21. Cause: Lightning. Containment: 97 percent. Full containment expected today.

Closures: The entire Cave Creek Ranger District is closed except for Bartlett Lake and the Mazatzal Wilderness area. The Agua Fria National Monument also is closed for public safety. "Nothing we can do is going to prevent flooding, but we can help minimize that." Todd Ellsworth Leader of the Burn Area Emergency Response team THREAT Continued from Bl to resprout in weeks, and the landscape will look close to normal in four or five years. But in the Sonoran Desert, it will take "100 years if we're lucky" for the land to return to its splendor before the fire, said Norm Ambos, a soil scientist. And there's not much officials can do to hurry that along.

Widespread reseeding, a common practice in burned forest areas, isn't an option in the desert. It's too dry to ensure that desert seedlings will take root and too expensive to bring water to large landscapes. Spots forever altered Nearly 250,000 acres burned, with the conflagration forever altering pockets of a desert ecosystem that simply isn't adapted to fire. The world's largest saguaro, near Horseshoe Lake, is so charred on one side that its spikes are gone and its arm will fall off. Carol Engle, a watershed expert, said the 46-foot cactus can live about five years on its in-sides, but then it may die.

Other scorched saguaros may live long enough to reseed Hohokam pit houses also were damaged. Archaeologist Scott Wood is working with excavators to push up trees and pull vegetation back over ruins unearthed by bulldozers plowing safe zones for firefighters and control lines. Endangered fish moved Near Camp Creek, about 150 endangered Gila topminnows had to be captured and relocated from the ash-choked Lime Creek. Additional rain gauges will be installed in key areas and early warning systems for flooding will be developed. "We're still looking at what some of the risks might be," Ellsworth said.

"We don't know specifically what could happen yet." Other restoration work includes moving unearthed shrubs back into place to protect the soil. Berms are being constructed for drainage. Mulch will be dropped from helicopters for ground cover and to increase the success of revegeta-tion. "It's not about making the land pretty again," Ellsworth said. "It's minimizing the future damage." Then Morris ran into his friend Jade Velazquez in the park; she was drunk and he invited her home for a good time his good time.

He killed her, too. Then he found Sherry Noah, a 37-year-old with the mental capacity and emotional makeup of a 12-year-old. Then Julie Castillo offered to have sex with him for $15 and a warm place to spend the night. Her body was still on the floor of the camper when Morris was arrested, covered with maggots, her eyes and part of her face gone. Evidence showed that someone was still having sex with her corpse.

Similar evidence was found on the other bodies, and DNA evidence pointed to Morris. Morris was caught when his uncle, who lived in the house the camper was parked behind, noticed the odors and the flies that swarmed Codman's body and went to investigate. It's just not real," Rhonda Noah said of listening to the details of the case, but she had to listen to find out what had happened to her sister Sherry. It was the only way she could find closure. CONVICTED Continued from Bl Morris, 27, preyed on "throw-away women" in a downtown Phoenix neighborhood between September 2002 and April 2003 His victims were drug-addicted prostitutes and a developmentally disabled girl in a woman's body.

One was a friend. "He is death personified," Deputy County Attorney Juan Martinez said last week during his closing arguments. "He is the black angel of death when he goes out on the Phoenix streets. The jury agreed. Morris' defense attorney, James Logan, described Morris as "naive." He argued that there was no evidence of premeditation.

Morris had contended that the deaths were accidental. The facts of the case were horrifying. The first victim was Barbara Codman, who agreed to have sex for $20 but was strangled with a necktie. Then Shanteria Davis, who was willing to work for $5, was strangled with her hair extensions. but probably also will die within two or three years.

The emergency-response team is kicking around the idea of planting paloverde and mes-quite to act as the shade new cactus seeds need to grow, but it's an expensive undertaking. "There are things you can do on a very small scale," Ambos said. "On a large scale, it's going to be difficult. Most of the desert areas will look Saguaros slow growing It takes eight to 10 years for a cactus to grow 3 to 6 inches, said Carrie Templin of the Bureau of Land Management. It takes 75 to 100 years to sprout an arm.

"If I live to be 100, 1 may see something coming back, but I sure won't see those majestic, big saguaros," Templin said. "I'll sure miss them." A handful of irreplaceable Powerball Saturday's drawing: 08 09 39 47 53; Powerball: 04; Power Play: 05; Wednesday's jackpot: $23 million Pick 3 Monday's numbers: 5 22. Play one game for $1 to win up to $500. Play 2 games for $1 to win up to $250 on each game. Fantasy 5 Monday's drawing: 05 09 14 26 30.

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