Longtime Chester County pastor killed in York County crash

CHESTER COUNTY, S.C. — Linda Jenkins retired from the banking world to become a pastor. It's a job she took to heart and she inspired those around her.

"She was always there to give a hug and receive a hug," said Charles Rousey.  He's a longtime member of Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church --  a small, historic church that sits on a quiet, rural corner of Gaston Farm Road in Chester County.

It's a place where Jenkins could be everything to everyone.

"Whatever you wanted her to be. She was either your mother, your sister or whatever. She was just that way," Rousey said.

Jenkins, 72, was killed Wednesday at Gordon Road and Highway 5 near York. Troopers say she didn't see an oncoming pickup truck, and pulled out onto the highway. The driver of that truck, David Bratton, 61, was injured, and taken to a local hospital for treatment. Jenkins later died at the hospital.

She was near the mandatory retirement age for methodist ministers, but friends said stepping down would not have been easy for her.

"She loved being a pastor," said David McManus, who knew Jenkins since he was a child. She was his youth leader at a former church. McManus is now a pastor himself at Adna United Methodist Church in Rock Hill.  It's a second career for him too, partly because of Jenkins.

"it was hard to be around her and not feel good about yourself," he said. "To spend any time with her at all you would immediately know that she was one of the most beautiful people you could ever meet."

Jenkins served 23 years as a pastor, two decades of that at Pleasant Grove. The United Methodist leadership in Rock Hill told Channel 9 they'll provide someone to fill in, starting this Sunday.

Cox Media Group