A Grand-Mother

Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything.

Jeanette “Tinee” Martin was born to David & Sallie March 27, 1948, in Red Springs, NC. Tinee left this world, joining those she missed so desperately, on the morning of May 19, 2023.

Tinee is preceded in death by husband John Martin, daughter Patricia “Trisha” Martin, son Michael Anthony, mother Sallie; brothers David Jr. and Bobby Ray; sister Evelyn; grandmother Lena Locklear and many others.

Tinee is survived by Trisha’s children, Kallye Cook, and husband Mark Cook, their children Mercy, Maggie and Maverick; Michael Aguero, his sons Justin, Zayne Elic, Rogan Barry, and daughter Beverly; Jonathan Martin; Joshua Martin; daughter Kyanna Garrett and wife Shannon Garrett; son Joe Martin, his son Brandon and his daughters MaKaya and Kendall and daughter Madelyn. Brother Harold Odom and family; sister Pauline Blanks and family; Evelyn’s daughter Lisa; David Jr’s son Spencer; Bobby Ray’s son Ricky; and many cousins, nieces and nephews, lifelong friends and chosen family.

Tinee is everyone’s mom, young or grown- moms reach spanned oceans. Joshua said, “Mom is a GRAND-mother, she is everyone’s mother”. Indeed, she shared her mothers love and made many feel special, acknowledged and worthy.

Mom’s greatest accomplishment in life, were her children and grandchildren. Mom loves children, and she will remain mom and grandma to so many more than she helped to create.

In 2001 she lost her daughter Trisha (Trish), and raised Trisha’s 4 children as her own. She is mom to them and for Joshua, the only mom he knows. She and daddy took in nieces and nephews during an emergency, at one point having 7 children under the age of 12 living with them. She did it all without complaint and showered all 7 with every single bit of love she had to give.

Born in Red Springs, NC., in 1948, a member of the Lumbee Indian Tribe, Tinee worked hard. Life was not easy, family life was not easy and she suffered many tragic losses and traumas. Tinee worked the cotton fields and picked tobacco, she cooked for family and farmers from the age of 7.

Tinee got her water from a well in front of granny’s white farmhouse, used the old outhouse she’d run to in the dark, it was cold out and snow was on the ground. She told stories of cooking on a wood burning stove, getting light from oil lamps and bathing in a tub sat outside to be warmed only by the sun.

Eating mostly what was raised and grown on the farm, she learned how to manage with very little. Mom could create whole meals out of leftovers. One dish she created out of leftovers is her “Chicken and Rice Casserole”. We loved it so the dish made it into the dinner meal routine.

Mom told stories of her dad chasing her and her brothers across the yard, as he ran after them on his hands and how he could make his guitar talk. She told us how her mama named her “Tinee” because well, she’s so tiny and how her mother would mispronounce “vinegar”; she missed her, everyday. Her grandmother would comb her long dark hair after the bath, until it was dry and when her grandmother was mad, “she’d go humming into the woods”. She told stories of how strong her brothers were, lifting the front end of tractors by themselves and, the innocent trouble they’d get into.

Tinee left Red Springs after the death of her mother in 1966, returning briefly with her family in 1985. She lived in Florida, New Orleans, then started her life with John in Santa Maria, CA. As a young family, they moved to La Quinta, CA., where she and John spent many years becoming members of the La Quinta Christian Fellowship church. There they met lifelong friends who became their chosen family. In 1986, John and Tinee moved their family to Bakersfield, they’ve remained there, since.

When Tinee was a girl, going to school was a privilege, not a requirement. As an adult, Tinee went to high school and earned her high school diploma in June of 1987, with a 4.0 GPA. Earning her high school diploma was one of her proudest accomplishments.

Mom loved school and learning. Mom was always an active and supportive parent and grandparent. She attended and would volunteer for every school function. She went to parades, band competitions, talent shows, carnivals, PTA meetings, field trips, she worked in classrooms and showed up whenever teachers needed a hand.

Mom volunteered for the American Legion Post 26, was a member of the Teamsters Union, a waitress for Dennys, Marie Callender’s and others. She drove 18 wheelers, owned a harvesting company, trimmed trees and was the family handyman and mechanic.

Mom loved baseball, boxing, NASCAR and the Raiders (Though, she was pretty upset over the Carr situation). She knew stats and injuries, who was in trouble. She was very competitive and passionate about her sports team and players. Sometimes, just to get a rise out of her, you’d have to disagree with her or yell, Go Cowboys! Then duck or dodge a flying object.

Mom could quite literally, do anything. Always active, muscles formed by her hard work and physical labor. She was always on the go, making friends everywhere she went.

If you know Tinee, you know her love for home cooked meals, southern food or “home cooking” and Pepsi, she loved her Pepsi, in a can; only in a can. Unless she had salted peanuts, then a glass Pepsi bottle would be permitted.

At 4’11 and 98 pounds, mom was extremely strong, feisty, funny, quick-witted, kind, and loving. She loved a good joke, a prank or family story. She was fierce, fiery and, extremely independent. Even after suffering a stroke in 2011, she volunteered and would do as much as she could for herself.

After losing her partner of 44 years, her world changed dramatically. Never finding comfort in age or depending on others, she was at peace with leaving this earth whenever she would be called home. Mom, grandma, nana, aunt Tinee, mother-in-law, sister, friend; she loved her family above all else and being a grandmother brought her the utmost joy.

Tinee will be laid to rest with John at Bakersfield National Cemetery on Monday June 5th, 2PM, following a chapel service at Peters’s Funeral Home, Shafter, 1145 AM. Pastor Mark Collins with La Quinta Christian Fellowship, will officiate services.

Tinee’s family invites you to join in person or online, services will be streamed on Peters’s Funeral Home Facebook page.

No one will ever love you like your mother does. We love you Mom.