Rex Joseph Jennings
1925 – 2017

Rex Joseph Jennings, passed away on Sunday, May 14, 2017, at the age of 91 years, surrounded by his family and caregivers at the Chateau Providence Care Centre in St. Brieux, SK, following a 10-year fight with cancer.

Rex leaves his wife of 54 years, Simone (nee: Stacey) Jennings; his son, Guy (Tara) and their children: Hannah and Matt; his son, Grant and his sons: Harrison and Gordon; and daughter, Marlene Jennings (Clint Sawicki) and their sons Oscar and Reese; sister-in-law: Anne Jennings and her children: Tim (Suzanne) Jennings and Gail Jennings and their families.

Rex is predeceased by his parents: Guy and Laura Belle Jennings and his brother, Warren Jennings.

Rex was born in Regina in 1925 and grew up in Colonsay where the family built and operated the service station at the junction of highways #16 and #2 and later at the family quarter section four miles east and one mile north of Codette. Rex the oldest and Warren the youngest sons of Laura Belle and Guy Jennings, were products of the prairies born in the mid-1920s and growing up during the Great Depression. The family eventually moved into the town of Nipawin in 1939, and was forever the hometown of the Jennings family.

With the sky in his eye, in his 18th year, Rex traveled to Saskatoon to join up for the services for WWII. The air force was not in Rex’s future being affected by colour blindness; however, the Royal Canadian Navy came calling for him in 1944 and he eventually ended up on HMCS Westmount as the ship’s signalman. Upon his discharge in 1946, he returned to school and graduated as a forest ranger in 1949 with his first post in Fort Qu’appelle.

Rex’s life changed in 1963 when he met a young Simone Stacey from Prince Albert, which led to a wedding in April of that year and a lifelong companion. This union was punctuated by the birth of two sons, Guy and Grant and daughter, Marlene.

Rex did not give up on flight, and turned his attentions to earning his commercial licence and eventually combining his passions as the conservation officer pilot in Hudson Bay. Rex logged 7,000 hours as a bush pilot and in 1972 he decided to fold up his wings while luck was on his side and move his young family to a new post in Melfort, where Simone still resides. Rex retired here and spent his remaining years enjoying all the outdoors could offer a man and enjoying his children, grandchildren and cherished friends. He was no stranger to coffee row where he freely listened, laughed and provided his opinions to his companions.
Thank you for being part of Rex’s life.

Posthumous words by Rex:
“If I could live my life over again, I would do it all the same”.

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