When it came to Coweta County development, few people knew the terrain like Weyman Jenkins. A member of the county’s development authority for more than 20 years, Mr. Jenkins was involved in much of the industrial growth in the area.
“The PetSmart distribution center and the Cancer Treatment Centers of America's regional center, he was involved with both of those major development projects in the county,” said Greg Wright, president of the Coweta County Development Authority. “The projects he’s been involved in, including the bond issue on Piedmont Newnan Hospital, will stand for generations to come.”
Mr. Jenkins left the development authority in April because his health was failing, said Carolyn Jenkins, his wife of more than 48 years. In recent weeks Mr. Jenkins suffered a heart attack, which sent him to the hospital for several days. He had only been home a few days when he became unresponsive and the paramedics had to be called, she said.
Robert Weyman Jenkins, widely known as Weyman, died Wednesday before he could be transported to the hospital. He was 68. A funeral was held Saturday at Claude A. McKibben and Sons Funeral Home, Hogansville, which was also in charge of arrangements. His body was buried in the Grantville Cemetery.
A lifelong Coweta County resident, Mr. Jenkins was born in Newnan and lived in Grantville. He was at least a third-generation Jenkins in the county, his wife said.
“This place was all he knew,” she said. “From birth to death, he did everything he could to make this a better place.”
Mr. Jenkins was heavily involved in local politics in and around Coweta County. In the ‘60s he was on the Grantville City Council, and from the early '70s to the early '80s he was the Grantville city manager. Among other things, he also served on Newnan's utilities commission for 13 years and the board of the Coweta Cities & County Employees Federal Credit Union for 12 years, and he spent several years on the Coweta County Library Board and as the chairman of the Grantville Cemetery Trust.
“He took very seriously his various roles in Coweta County, Grantville and Newnan,” Mr. Wright said. “He wanted to see the place he loved, the place he was born, become an even better place.”
In 2006, when Grantville needed an interim city manager, Mr. Jenkins pitched in, but he gave up the post in 2008, almost a year after the couple’s only child, Robert Weyman “Robbie” Jenkins Jr., died of heart-related problems.
“That was a hard job without the extra stress of grief,” his wife said. “But he did it as long as he could.”
In addition to his wife, Mr. Jenkins is survived by his sister, Mary Jane Flournoy of Luthersville; and a brother, Ron Jenkins of Cartersville.
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