Nancy (Whitaker) Jezek

Nancy Jezek was 100 years old when she died on Nov. 22, 2025 in Manchester, CT. She was born July 11, 1925 in Stafford Springs to Richard and Doris Whitaker. She was a graduate of Stafford High School and the Hartford Hospital School of Nursing. At Stafford High, she was captain of the girls’ basketball team. 

While in high school she met George Jezek, who became the love of her life. She faithfully waited three years for him while he went off to serve in the Army during World War II. When he returned they were married in 1946. Their first home was a very small apartment in Stafford Springs with no heat during some very cold winters. Eventually they moved to Enfield, where they lived for almost 40 years. Together they founded and operated the Sterling Machine Co. George died in 1987 at age 66.

Nancy and George were introduced to Bible truths by two young girls who knocked  on their door as part of the door-to-door ministry conducted by Jehovah’s Witnesses. They told the girls they were satisfied with their current religion, but they were actually very unhappy with events in their church and eventually they agreed to a Bible study. Slowly, Bible truths touched their hearts. Nancy and George were baptized together as Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1970.

Before Nancy became a member of the Vernon Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, she was at various times a member of the Enfield, Warehouse Point and Stafford Springs congregations. Her  worship included 15 years as a “pioneer,” which at that time meant she spent as much as 100 hours a month in volunteer work teaching the Bible to interested people. This was a reflection of her great love for people and for the Bible, and her wish that everyone could be comforted by the Bible’s message as she had been. 

Nancy was well-know among her many friends for her poetry, paintings and photography. Treasured samples of her work are greatly appreciated by her family and her large circle of friends. Members of her poetry group often heard Bible truths when she recited her writings at their meetings at the assisted living center where she lived.  While participating in the door-to-door ministry, she was known on occasion, to call for the car to be stopped so she could hop out with her camera to capture a beautiful scene for one of her many photo scrapbooks and to share with friends.

She is survived by her daughters and sons-in-law, Marilyn and George Chappell of Manchester and Beverly and Walter Gniady of East Hartford. Nancy also leaves six grandchildren, David Chappell (and wife Maria), Jennifer Lee (and husband Monte), Elizabeth Resendes. Jonathan Chappell, Lynn Wagner (and husband Robert) and Wendy Chase; and seven great-grandchildren, Clayton, Evan and Grace Olden, Tristan and Celia Lee, Aleksey Chappell and Michael Wagner (and wife Lixie.) She was predeceased by a great-grandson, Dimitri Chappell, in 2007; grandson Stephen Chase in 2024; and  by her younger sister, Phyllis McKelvie, in 2025.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Dec. 6, 2025, at the Vernon Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, 214 New Bolton Road , Manchester, CT.