User:Rjenkin1985

My name is Richard A. "Tony" Jenkins.

I was born, raised and live in Memphis TN, except for the years I worked on my Master's and PhD and a short tenure in Salisbury NC at Hood Theological Seminary

I have a BA from Union University in Jackson, TN (1982); an MDiv from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1987) and a PhD from Duke University (1996). My work has focused on the study of religion in America and England and American history.

I worked for two years developing research aids and doing research for patrons in the Special Collections Department of the Perkins Library at Duke.

I have worked with personal computers since 1983, professionally on and off since 1987.

I have served as a professional researcher for several projects and primarily focus on research at the present time. Given my academic training, my work assisting researchers at Duke, my experience with computers and experience as a professional researcher, I feel that I am able to develop accurate content in a variety of areas, including some outside of history. I suffer no illusions that I can easily or quickly become an expert in a topic, I do believe that I am capable of gathering information from solid sources (preferably primary in nature) and communicating that information to the general public.

While I spend little time on Wikipedia (and refused to let my students use it in academic papers) I do find Wikipedia to be a good place to start research or look up basic facts.

Recently I rewrote much of the page on Linda Thompson (nee Thompson of Memphis, born in 1950). Most of the page was undocumented and it lacked what I regard as important details about her life. Some of the information on the page confused the American Thompson with the British singer Linda Thompson (nee Pettifer, born in London in 1947) who married the singer Richard Thompson. I myself confused the two in some of the first drafts of my changes, but I worked through the primary sources available online such as published interviews with the American Thompson, official websites of the Miss USA and the Miss America Universe pageants, and Richard Thompson's official website to clearly differentiate the two persons.

My interest in this particular article was driven by a picture in the Memphis Commercial Appeal which reflected back to Ms. Thompson's victory in a local beauty pageant. Her name was vaguely familiar so I went to Wikipedia to refresh my memory about this person who is perhaps known most widely for her relationship with Elvis Presley. When I found that the Wikipedia article lacked documentation and detail, I decided to see if I could confirm one statement, that Ms. Thompson was Miss Tennessee. A quick check showed that she had not won the contest most people consider to be Miss Tennessee (where she was 3rd runner-up) but the Miss Tennessee Universe pageant. In the state of Tennessee, there was and is a big difference between the two pageants.

I then decided to fact check everything in the entry. I confirmed and documented what was correct, changed what was wrong and added more of Ms. Thompson's awards and accomplishments, along with a bit or two of trivia. Every source I use is primary in nature and virtually every source I cited can be confirmed via the Internet. I have no doubt that many serious Elvis fans know much more than I do about Ms. Thompson and welcome any input they can document. However, I have no interest in continuing my research or debating my Wikipedia input on this topic.

I have no connection to Ms. Thompson nor do I stand to gain anything from my efforts. My motivation was a personal distaste for undocumented or incorrect history and an occasional, seemingly random obsession with bits of information.

If anything I have written is offensive to Ms. Thompson or any of the other persons mentioned, I offer my sincerest apologies and the opportunity to make any necessary correction.