June 14, 1927 - April 8, 2022
Mass of Christian Burial for Christian Alonzo “Al” Jensen, 94 year-old Enid resident, will be 10:00am Tuesday, April 12, 2022 at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church with Father Mark Mason officiating. A private family burial will follow in Enid Cemetery under the direction of Henninger-Hinson Funeral Home. The funeral home will be open 8:00am-8:00pm Monday for those wishing to sign his register book.
Al was born in El Paso, Texas and moved to Dallas, Texas when he was three. He began his musical career at age eight, playing clarinet. Five years later, after a brief gig at a burlesque theater, his parents happily oversaw his transition to oboe. At age sixteen, he won a full scholarship to Juilliard where he earned a performance degree and also played with the NBC symphony under Toscanini, taking a brief hiatus to serve in the military in WWII. He later attended SMU where he received a degree in English and in music education.
First working as a band director and soon after, as a shoe representative with his father’s company, he met Marie Tallent who would soon become his wife. They made their home in Dallas and later moved to Alva, Oklahoma, where their daughter Karen was born. They then moved to Enid, where in 1966, they opened Jensen’s Music Store, where you could just as easily be invited to sit and have a donut or cookie and a coke as to peruse the pianos, instruments, or sheet music. Al and Marie built more than a music business; they built a reputation of dependability among the community and their friends. When they sold the store in 2002, their inability to retire fully led them to open up shop next door to the music store, with church organ sales, offering them the opportunity to travel. Al also served as a professor of oboe at Phillip’s University.
Al received the governor’s arts award in 1984. In 2009, he was inducted into the Oklahoma’s Bandmasters Association as an honorary member, a first for a non-band director. In 2015, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tri-State Music Board for his commitment to young musicians through his support and participation. Whenever congratulated on his success, Al would always defer: “the angels have been kind to us.” His presence in the lives of those who knew and loved him would have to agree: the angels have been kind to us all.
He was preceded in death by his wife of 54 years, Marie, in 2009; his parents and his brother, Andrew Jensen.
Al is survived by his daughter, Karen (Doug Nieb), and grandsons, Zach, Jake, and Sam.
In lieu of flowers and in honor of his life-long love and support of music programs everywhere, the family asks you to consider donating to the Enid High School Big Blue Band Booster Club. For information, please contact band director Robert Anderson at rdanderson@enidk12.org.
Obituaries are posted, in part, due to the generosity of The Commons.
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