Because he had some vision, Jenkins could not attend the state's school for the blind and had to pursue an education on his own. Besides his musical talents, he was skilled in other ways. After becoming a Methodist at the age of nine, he began "preaching" to playmates from porches and tree stumps. Not surprisingly, he became a licensed preacher around the age of 21 and moved into the city, supplementing whatever he could earn from preaching and street performing by running a newspaper stand. After his first wife's death, Jenkins married Francis Jane Walden Eskew in 1919. A young widow, his new wife had three musically talented children, Irene, Mary Lee and a son, T.P. Thus was born the Jenkins Family, one of the most popular family acts of its day.