A memorial will be held for Gaston Justice Jenkins—a gay veteran known to friends and family as “David”—at Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted, on Mon., Jan. 21, at 5:30 p.m.
Jenkins served 13 years on active duty as a pilot in the U.S. Navy at bases and on aircraft carriers around the world. He was among the elite pilots stationed at Guantanamo immediately after the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
For 16 years, Jenkins was also the partner of local philanthropist Richard Turner. Turner recently told Windy City Times that Jenkins, who had Parkinson’s disease, “was the kindest guy in the world. David didn’t like the limitations in his life, but he never once complained.”