Irene Jackson

IRENE JACKSON, 68, passed from this life Tuesday November 11 2014 at Paris Regional Medical Center. Starrett Funeral Home will conduct funeral services at 10:00 a.m. on Friday November 14, 2014 at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Paris, Texas with Elders Howard Ellis and Tom Sanders officiating. Interment will follow in the Fairview Cemetery, Clarksville, Texas.

The family will receive friends from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Thursday at Starrett Funeral Home.

She was a graduate of Adamson High School in Dallas; class of 1964. She was one of Jehovah's Witnesses, having been baptized at age 11. Her deep love was exemplified in her service and epitomized in the writings of Daniel 2:44. She loved to talk about the Kingdom. She was a regular pioneer and moved to Clarksville in 1964 to serve where the need was greater. She has an exemplary spiritual family heritage, dating back to the 1930s. She found great joy through serving.

Irene was born January 8, 1946 in Grandfield, Oklahoma, a daughter of Elmer Allen and Edna Mae Runnels Bell. She married Roy Smalley on February 28, 1964 in Dallas, and to this union was born three children, Kyle Smalley, who resides in Sulphur Springs with his wife Julie; Kerry Smalley and fiancee' Julie, who live in Forney, and Nikki Chennault, who lives in Paris with her husband Shane.

Irene married Phillip Jackson on October 21, 2006 and their marriage brought together more children, more grandchildren, and more love. In this marriage she was able to share her love with
Phillip's children: Jason and T.C. Jackson, Tina Hilton and husband Michael, Bryan Jackson, Hassie Milligan and husband David, and Jason Jackson and wife Tabitha.

Irene is survived by sixteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren; each of them the apple of her eye. The only thing she enjoyed more than working for her congregation was the time spent with each of them. She met the obstacles of life with a smile, and in helping others she found joy. Her strength never waivered, and she lived with the abiding peace that tough times don't last, but tough people will.

She was preceded in death by her parents; by one brother Elmer Wayne Bell, and two sisters, Lillian Miller and Patricia Ann Maples; and her husband Jim Burke, in 2003.