As a child, Marlene Jennings had to stay quiet whenever her father, Preston Jennings Sr., was resting.
His work as a Canadian Pacific Railway porter could keep him away from home for 14 days at a time.
“We all remember seeing our dad seated at the kitchen table with newspapers on the floor and he was shining his shoes, getting ready to go to work,” she said. “It was only when I got older I understood the nature of his work and he was so sleep deprived.”
It’s a little known history, but Jennings Sr. — who was born outside Birmingham,
