Marvin Jenkins—Just As He Is

Marvin Jenkins has a face familiar to many, if not all. If you don’t know him by his face, you will most certainly recognize him by his trade. Most days you can catch Marvin riding his mower, trimming some weeds, or pruning bushes in the brightness of daylight which is usually early mornings. By trade, he is a one stop shop for all your lawn care needs but in life he is a son, brother, husband, father and friend.

Born to Frank and Katherine Jenkins as one of three sons, he was educated and has lived in Monticello most of his life, and for most of my life I have known Marvin. See, he and my only brother were Jasper County High School Class of 1981 graduates and friends. As younger men they looked eerily alike, both bantam in size and height, and would often be mistaken for siblings especially during their “jerry curl” phase—ask either about it.

So who is Marvin? Well he is a brother to Frank Lamar and Oscar, husband to Dorothy, father to Ashley and Terlisha, and a man who appreciates the simple pleasures in life. He described himself as a “handyman, workaholic who likes being outside” but I see an entreprenur who loves what he does and has been doing it a very long time. Prior to graduating high school, Marvin was employed at Foodland grocery and after graduation he continued that job until the store went out of business.

At that point, Marvin said he decided to “start doing my own thing.” He began painting houses and doing small maintenance jobs for anyone needing his services and moved on to cutting grass and lawn work.

“I started out with push mowers and graduated to zeros,” he said referring to the escalation and sophistication of his lawn equipment through the years.

He used to refer to his business as Jenkins Handyman Service but with the “handyman” portion phased out, he says “just call him Marvin.” He is a man in demand, too. If you see a tan pickup with a trailer attached with a zero-turn mower on top as you are out and about, it’s likely Marvin as he has clients throughout the area from Jackson to Madison to Eatonton to Athens. Location and distance are not a problem for him as he says “got truck, will travel.”

Marvin’s laugh is hearty and his smile big and bright but there was a time when those traits were dimmed a bit. If you have noticed Marvin, walks with a limp which is the result of a stroke that happened in 2005. The stroke was the result of the arteries in his neck clogging up and stopping his blood flow as a result of high cholesterol, Marvin said. He noted that a lot of fried food and endless consumption of salt led him to that health scare and though he saw the warning signs he did not heed them. He was able to bounce back from the stroke with all of his facilities intact but with that limp.

His advice to anyone and everyone about their health is to seek a doctor or help for any abnormal symptoms—don’t wait. After that Marvin said he changed his ways because he “didn’t want to be pushing up the daisies” he likes to manicure.

So the next time you are traveling down Hillsboro Street or Hwy. 212 and you spot the tan pickup next to a guy wearing googles and holding a weed eater give him a honk or two ‘cause it’s just Marvin.