Descendants of Captain Arthur Fenner

Roger Allan Fenner

Roger Fenner & Patty Seafert (center), 31 July 1971.

[b 6 Nov. 1951 at Sturgis, MI; d 1 Oct. 2024 in Zephyrhills, FL] While growing up in Colon, Michigan, as a junior in high school, Roger met Patty L. Seafert [b 16 Sept. 1952]. It was not until the end of his senior year that they started dating. He graduated from Colon Community High School in 1969. Two years later, after graduating from Glen Oaks Community College (Centreville, MI) Roger married Patty, on 31 July 1971. The next spring they moved to Port Charlotte, FL, where they bought their first home. Over the next few years and several trips to the hospital it became clear that Patty would never have children, so they chose to adopt and went to the Children’s Home Society. They adopted David Allan Fenner in June of 1977 at the age of 7 weeks. In Florida, Roger worked as a licensed insurance agent for the next 17 years. They had looked into adopting a girl but it never happened. Just before they left Florida to move to North Carolina in 1989, there was a word spoken over Pat that they would have a daughter but not in the way they would expect.

In 1994, when Pat’s mom was sick, they moved back to Michigan, where Roger worked as a carpenter for Richard G. Fenner. Pat enrolled at Western Michigan University to get her degree as a special needs teacher. While in Kalamazoo, MI, David met Regina M. Leipzig and they got married. Regina soon became pregnant. When Pat graduated Western, they moved to a warmer climate in Jeffersonville, Indiana, where Roger got a job as a welder and a crane rigger at Jeffboat. Pat got a job as a teacher at Restoration Christian School, which became a charter school called Rock Creek Community Academy (Sellersburg, IN). Pat enrolled at the Indiana University and got her Masters degree in Special Needs, and became the director of special needs education Rock Creek.

David and Regina followed Roger and Patty to Jeffersonville and had their son Matthew Allan Fenner on 30 May 1998. Shortly after Matthew was born, Regina divorced David. She went back to California for a while where her birth mother lived but decided a few months later that she wanted Roger and Patty as her mom and dad and moved back to Indiana. They considered her as the daughter spoke of in the prophesy and loved her as a daughter ever since.

David remarried in 2000 to Shauntee Franklyn [b 27 April 1978], and they had their first child Isaiah Allan Fenner [b 24 February 2001]. In 2001, Pat and Roger bought a home in Charlestown, IN. David and Shauntee then had a set of twins, Aaliyah and Adrianna [b 15 Dec. 2003]. A few years later, Shauntee divorced David. David then moved in with Jennifer Wallace and they had two girls, Angel Fenner [b 24 Nov. 2008] and Katelyn Fenner [b ?]. Then they separated and David moved in with Jessica Henson and they had two daughters, Jaymi Lee Fenner [b 30 January 2011] and Breahna Fenner [b 28 March 2012].

Meanwhile, Regina remarried twice with a son Tyler Carrier [b 1 Aug. 2000], and Tiara Layton [b 18 Jan. 2004] from the third marriage. Unfortunately Tiara was diagnosed with a brain tumor at age 4 and died at age 5 in 2009. Because Roger and Patty always considered Regina as their daughter, they thought of Tyler and Tiara as their grandchildren. Then they met an exchange student, Gedeon Nzomi, from Congo, Africa. Pat had come to know him well and respected him as a godly and honorable man, so when he told Pat about his sister Benedicte Nyzele Nzombi [b 25 Nov. 1998], still in Congo, they agreed to take her in. She came to the U.S. in June 2014, and they filed paperwork to adopt her. In September 2014, Benedicte Nzombi Fenner, at age 15, was declared to be their legal daughter by a judge in Jeffersonville, IN. They now had a daughter who came in a way they never expected.

Roger retired from JeffBoat (Jefferson, IN) in 2018, then worked for two years as a construction assistant before opting to become a snowbird. He and Patty lived in a camper in Zephyrhills, FL, for a while, then sold their home in Charlestown, IN, and bought a home on a large lot in Zephyrhills to make the move permanent. In the summer of 2020, they started the process of adopting two of their grandchildren, Jaymi and Breahna, which was finalized in January 2021.

David Allan [b 11 Apr. 1977], adopted at 7 weeks old in 1977.
Benedicte Nyzele Nzombi [b 25 Nov. 1998], adopted at age 15 in 2014.

Sources:
1. Biography courtesy of Roger Fenner, 25 Feb. 2016, and 15 Jan. 2022.