If you’ve lived in New Mexico for any length of time and are interested in its history, there is a name you should really know. That person — a true treasure of our state — is the late Dr. Myra Ellen Jenkins, former State Historian and knower of all historical facts New Mexican.
I was looking up some information about a former journalistic colleague this week, making sure he was still around and writing his online column. As best as I could tell, Larry Calloway is still around but I think he has stopped writing his column from his home in Crestone, CO, on the eastern edge of the San Luis valley on the slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. While perusing one of his well-written and thoughtful blogs I came across the name of Myra Ellen Jenkins, who frequently helped Larry, me and many others sort through and clarify important historical facts about our state. The discovery of her name in one of his columns triggered an interest in writing about this exceptional person.
Born in Elizabeth, CO, in 1916, she earned her bachelor’s degree and masters degree from the University of Colorado and worked as a teacher in that state before moving to New Mexico. She received her doctorate in 1953 from the University of New Mexico and worked as a free-lance historical researcher until she joined state government with the Museum of New Mexico. In an attempt to preserve the state’s historical documents, the New Mexico Legislature created the State Records and Archives Center in 1960. She first served there as State Archivist and then was later named State Historian. She retired in 1980, earning many accolades for her dedicated work and passion to preserve the state’s history.
She was once named a “Santa Fe Living Treasure.” Other major awards were National Trust Award for Historic Preservation, presented by Lady Bird Johnson in 1974; the Board of Directors’ Award, presented by the Historical Society of New Mexico in 1986; and induction into the New Mexico Women’s Hall of Fame in 1987, by Governor Garrey Carruthers.
Her special historical interests were land grants, water rights and the Pueblo culture.
She wrote or co-authored many books. One that she wrote with Albert H. Schroeder entitled “A Brief History of New Mexico” is considered to be a definitive source on the history of the Land of Enchantment.
A story about her passing from the University of New Mexico noted that “from 1960 until her death, Myra Ellen has been thanked in the preface of nearly every book
published on New Mexico history.”
She had a keen sense of humor and once quipped that many people didn’t “know the difference between an archive and an endive.”
As a journalist, I called her frequently for historical background on stories I was writing for United Press International. She was always available and always quotable. She knew how to say things that would be a perfect quote for a story I was writing.
I recall that I was writing once about this history of Zozobra, the effigy of Old Man Gloom that is burned every Labor Day Weekend in Santa Fe. I called to ask her about any historical background on that event and she promptly offered that there were similar happenings earlier in Spanish Colonial New Mexico.
“People were goofing around in other parts of the state, burning statues to celebrate the passing of some bad event,” she said. “People in Santa Fe had heard about these celebrations and decided to jump on the caretta (the word for a Mexican ox cart instead of “bandwagon”).”
One thing about her that made her a kindred spirit to me was her car. She drove a beautiful fjord blue 1973 BMW 2002tii, long before most people knew what a classic it was. She’s honestly one of the reasons I bought my first BMW — a 1975 2002.
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