Services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 118 S. Van Buren St., with the Rev. James L. Collins, pastor, officiating. Burial will be in Llano Cemetery by Warford-Walker Mortuary.

Brenda Joyce Mitchell was born August 9, 1943, in Oklahoma City to Herschel and Lena Mitchell. She attended Carver Elementary, Carver Junior High, briefly attended high school in Colorado Springs, Colo., and returned to Amarillo and graduated from Carver High School in 1961.

Mrs. Jackson married Cecil Jackson on June 2, 1969. The couple had two children.

Brenda studied nursing at Amarillo College and received her diploma from the Northwest Texas Hospital School of Nursing in 1974. She obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from West Texas State University in 1977, and her Master of Science degree from Texas Women’s University in Denton in 1981. She completed several post-graduate hours at Texas Tech in Lubbock.

In addition to her academic honors Brenda was a faithful member of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church and was a member of the Amarillo Alumnae Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Brenda taught nursing at Amarillo College and worked at Northwest Texas Hospital from 1980 to 1998. After retiring, she briefly worked part-time in the nursery at NWTH and in the laboratory at Amarillo College before her health began to decline.

She was preceded in death by her parents; two sisters, Frankie J. Cobb and Vera J. Daniels; and two stepdaughters, Eyvonne Dowdy-Jackson and Rhonda Dowdy-Jackson.

Survivors include her husband; a daughter, Cori Smith and husband Michael of Amarillo; a son, Steve Jackson and wife Pamela of Amarillo; 11 siblings, Darlena Mitchell, David Mitchell, Fransetta Crow, Morris Mitchell and wife Nadine and Victor Mitchell, all of Amarillo, Betty Monroe of Tulsa, Okla., Connie Mitchell of Broken Arrow, Okla., Carol Brown and partner Dana of Ashland, Ore., Frederick Mitchell and wife Karen of Waco, Herschel Mitchell of Napa Valley, Calif., and Margaret Parker and husband Ralph of Granger, Ind.; a stepsister, Marie Shorten of Amarillo; two stepsons, Romeryl Dowdy and Cecil Dowdy-Jackson Jr.; eight grandchildren, McKenzie Smith, Michael Smith Jr., Khalil Jackson, all of Amarillo, Ashley Brown and Aubrei Dowdy of San Angelo, Trinity Dowdy of Arkansas and Montra Jackson of Pampa and Travontry Jackson of Dallas; and a host of nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.