Jackson Morey Hensley (83) of Watson

Jackson Morey Hensley, painter, father, “Bumpa,” husband, friend, passed away peacefully at his home in Watson, IL, on May 24, 2024.

Jackson was born September 6, 1940 in Portales, New Mexico. His grandfather Elias Turner Hensley (1870-1962) was the first doctor in the Territory near what is now Clovis. His father, also Elias Turner Hensley (1907-1967), was a prominent jurist, ultimately the Chief Justice of the New Mexico Court of Appeals. His mother, Elizabeth Morey Hensley, was a Wisconsin industrialist’s daughter who met her husband while they both attended college in Chicago.

Growing up, Jackson struggled with learning disabilities but found an early love of animals, sports, drawing, and spirituality. His interest in art led Jackson to write to prominent southwestern painter Peter Hurd in the summer of 1959. Hurd invited Jackson to visit him in San Patricio. It was at the advice of Hurd’s wife, Henriette, and her brother, Andrew Wyeth, that Jackson applied to study at the National Academy of Design in New York City with famed draftsman Leon Kroll.

There Jackson voraciously learned drafting and painting from some of the nation’s leading artists including Kroll, Vernon Porter, and William Auerbach-Levy. Before long he was winning awards from numerous institutions, including the prestigious Salmagundi Club. Most importantly for Jackson, he also met and married Carolyn Brown in 1961.

In 1967 the couple moved to Taos with their young children, Michael and Janet. Jackson soon became friends with international architect Richard Pritzlaff after meeting him at a Santa Fe gallery exhibition. He often visited the stunning Rancho San Ignacio and reveled in the Arabian horses and the global antique collection there.

Jackson began collecting antiques and horses of his own, poring over pedigrees and histories. Over the next twenty years he became well known not only for art, but for his asil Arabian horse farm. Visitors came from around the world to visit Hensley Gallery Southwest and to see his desert horses.

Locally, the Hensleys were known through their devotion to St. James Episcopal Church, where Carolyn taught Sunday School and Jackson assisted with services as a lay preacher. Through his paintings, poetry and church involvement, Jackson was able to express his deeply personal relationship with God.

Tragically, in 1989 Carolyn passed away after a 25-year battle with diabetes. Since she was uninsurable, Jackson lost almost everything–his house, his horses, his will to paint–to pay the medical debt.

Jackson’s brother, Bill, reintroduced him to Santa Fe jeweler Tresa Vorenberg, and they were married in 1989. They worked in both Santa Fe and Taos, each creating some of the most iconic work of their lives during this time. They divorced in 1999, but stayed connected to raise their daughter Morika.

Jackson returned full time to Taos, becoming passionately involved in the lives of his children and grandchildren. He became famous in the community for standing on the sidelines of the soccer field, hands in pockets, shouting commands, encouragements, and jokes with his notoriously booming voice. Every practice, every game, anywhere in the state, he was there.

In 2008 Jackson reconnected through email with a fellow Arabian horse breeder, Alice Martin. They married in 2012 when he moved to Watson, Illinois. Although his health was beginning to fail, Jackson painted, mowed the lawn on his beloved “chariot” Dixie Chopper, tended his trees and horses, loving his expanded family and the Watson community.

Alice and Jackson made several trips together to New Mexico, Colorado, Ohio and Georgia. They visited museums, attended concerts and musicals, celebrated holidays and special occasions with Alice’s son Martin, daughter-in-law Kate, grandson Malcolm, and other family and friends. They sang joyfully together in the Watson United Methodist Church Choir.

Jackson was preceded in death by his parents, brothers Fred and Bill Hensley, and his first wife, Carolyn Brown Hensley. He is survived by his wife, Alice Martin, and his children, Michael, Janet, and Morika; his grandchildren, Havean, Josh, Zoie, Connor, and Nastassja; and his great-grandchildren Yvie, Emma, and Carter. Thousands of his paintings are housed in public and private collections across the country.

A celebration of life will be held at the Watson United Methodist Church on Saturday, June 8, 2024 at 1 p.m. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to Al Khamsa, Inc. in Jackson’s name, at AlKhamsa.org. Johnson Funeral Home in Effingham, IL is assisting the family with arrangements. Online condolences may be shared at www.johnsonandsonsfh.com.

Jackson Morey Hensley lived to bring beauty into the world. Creating beauty–the profound and illuminating kind–was his sacred task. Through times of joy and times of grief, strength and weakness, anger and love, he created ripples of beauty through his paintings, his writings, his horses, and his family. We will all miss his twinkly blue eyes, his mischievous smirk, and his powerful love. We carry him in our hearts and our own journeys towards the light.