BIOSKETCH:
Earl L. Jones was actually born in the small community of Sandsprings just NW of Weletka instead of Okemah as shown on the birth certificate...not the larger city of Sand Springs in western Tulsa County.
Earl attended many different schools while growing up: Worstell & Latta, Oklahoma; Richmond, California; Allen, Oklahoma; Irving in Ada, Oklahoma; Ada Junior High; 1/2 semester at Ada High; granduated from Byng High School in 1953 and about 5 months at Draughn's Business College in 1956.
My first memories were of a place we lived out in the Maxwell Community. [NW of Oil Center] My Uncle Oss [Daddy's Brother] and his family of four lived just down the "path" East of us and as a pre-schooler I had a bad habit of slippinng off down there to play with their two children, Farrell & Many Lou and received many "switchings" from Momma for that. I firmly believe that the primary reason for growing peach trees was for the limbs to use as switches. One time about Christman time I remember Daddy had brought a billy goat home and that old goat broke through the screen door and came right on into the house....I was on a bed and conveniently managed to roll off it between the wall so as not to be butted by old "Billy". I remember making friends with that goat by the time we had moved to the Kirby place that had a large front porch, cedar trees around it and we kids enjoyed the large barn down across the road to play in during the winter. There were two ponds on the place too, for fihing and swimming. I also remember that there was a baptismal service held in the smaller one once. Daddy worked some in the oilfields and also at the Aldrige Hotel as a cook...once he brought home a wooden barrel of left-over rolls that we kids and neighborhood kids sure enjoyed. For the life of me I don't know haw he managed to get it home because he didn't even own an auto.
My first year of schooling was in the Primer at Worsetll and also the first grade the next year. [The school had grades from Primer through grade eight] Mrs. Watson was my teacher. I remember my first day very well.....I didn't like school so I decided to go home, but, my sister Mona Jean caught me and took me back against my wishes and puddles of tears. The school house was a red brick structure with outside toilets and a hand/lever operated pump for the water we drank. The heat was from a large wood burning furnace. My best friend was Bobby Bowerman who lived about a mile North of our house. I remember playing in the deep gullies out back of their house during the summer months.
The church that our family attended was The Church of God and was pastored by Tom. J. Jared, Sr. and his wife was my first Sunday School teacher and I just loved her to death. Later, Dee Smith was pastor with his wife and family of six children. That was a mighty fine family too. They had a son, Bennie, that was a few months older that me and we were in the same grade.
For what-ever reason we moved to a small log cabin over on the Lit Burk place. We all gathered pecans on the halves that Fall but the rats got most of ours tht winter. Each time [brother] Bill would nail up some cardboard, by the next morging those confounded rats had chewed it off and carried away a lot more of our pecans.We moved to the Latta Community the next Spring into a house that should have been condemned a long time before. Daddy got a job at the Aldridge Hotel in the laundry and tried to share crop "corn" that year. We always had big garden and Momma canned most of our food that had to eat during the winter. I remember so well, how she would have to wash our clothes outside in a black pot belly iron tub and would watch her actually cry during the icy cold winter moths as she would wring out those closes by hand and then hang them out to dry.
Our clothes might have had patches, but they were clean patches. I attended the second grade there at Latta where I was exposed to my first "fire escape" that was attached to the West side of the building.
The railroad tracks passed right by the school and I remember how sad I would get when I'd hear the shrill whistles of the troup trains heading out taking friends as well as relavtives to war. [45th Infantry Divison]
When school was out that next Spring, we first moved into another small house just up the road to the North and later into town at Ada over on West 4th Street, which, was my first experience of living in a house with electric lights and running water inside. But, to get into the bathroom you had to go outside to get to the door which was located on the South side of the house. Go Figure!!!!! That Summer my brothr Bill went with Grandpa Hayes to Okemah to pick cotton and brougt back the "itch" . Boy do I ever remember the "rotten egg odor" of the medication Momma smeared on us. We were not the only ones with the itch though becaause I think everyone in school had it...boys and girls alike.We moved over near the Church on East 4th Street for the Winter. Bill got a job at the local cheese plant and when he would come home from work Momma would make him shuck his clothes off outside...another smelly ordeal. He and I had to sleep out on the screeened-in back porch that had a canvas stretched around it. Brrr rabbit...what a cold winter! Grandma Jones came down with cancer and had to have an operation at the Valley View Hospital and lived with us duing her most trying times. We moved over on East Gardenia the next Spring.
Daddy & Bill went out to Richmond, California to secure jobs and earned enough money to send Momma so she could take the rest of us kids out there. The train ride was interesting. Daddy had rented a three bedroom furnished apaartment in a "new" housing complex that was sort of like army barracks. We were the first occupants. I was enrolled into the third grade and later the fourth grade but didn't learn a thing except how to shoot marbles, draw and fold paper airplances. We only went to school for half a day as all the rooms were doubly over-crowded.
Daddy worked in a Kaiser Shipyard as a pipefitter, Katherine and Bill got on as welders...all building Libert Ships during World War II. Momma worked for the sanittion department. I remember other relatives such as Grandpa and Grandma Hayes, Uncle RJ & Aunt Fairy with their two girls Wyvonne and Pauline, and Aunt Gracie who came later; all worked there too and we all lived in the same housing development complex area.
Well, when the war was over I was out on the streets selling newspapers and yelling to the top of my lungs, "get your Richmond Independant paper....Japan surrenders...the war is over".
Shortly, our family returned back to Oklahoma all except Katherine who got married and stayed in California. Our first night back was spent with Uncle Oss in their home on East 3rd Street. I suppose we looked like a can of worms with all our famlies mixd together that night.
Great Aunt Mellie, graciously allowed our family to stay in her home over on East 6th Sreet for a period of time until Daddy & Momma could find a house which they did over on North Orchard. A fine house it was too! I hated to leave it, but, Daddy decided to take some of the money he and Momma had saved and go into the help-your-self laundry business over in Allen, Oklahma.
I owe my education to my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Gilliam, who threatened to put me back ito fourth grade because of my lack of learning while in California. [I was way behind] But, I begged and pleaded with her and promised her that if she would give me one more chance that I would even move up on the front row right in front of her desk instead of being a "back row, marble rolling spit ball shooter". She did and I became a straight "A" student from then on.
The laundry business was good [the only one in town] but replacement parts for the machines were hard to get because of the war, so, Daddy tried another venture. We moved into a house at 226 East 2nd Street in Ada that was not even modern, but, he an Brother Tom Jared [next door neighbor and pastor of the church] built on a kitchen and bathroom. He bought an auto repair garage over on West 12th Street that did not pan out well at all. [I got my mechanical aptitude from him...if you turn on the kay and it wont start....it's broke]
I finished the sixth grade at Irving Grade School and then over to Ada Junior High. Momma didn't want me to play football for fear of injury, so, I didn't participate in sports at all except for the mandatory PE classes.
Jr. High was a nice experience even though I did have to walk all he way across town to & from school each day, no matter what the weather. I take this opportunity to add that there were a couple of cute young ladies that caught my eye along the way. The first being Sally Morey [daughter of Dr. Morey] who befriended me from the "get go" in 7th grade. Sally was everyonee's friend! It made no differece to her that I was from "the other side of town" and I shall always cherish her friendship. Then came 9th grade...another 'sweet thing" moved to town by the name of Lou Ann Spears. Her father was a rancher. She even lived on my paper route and I really had eyes for her but I was too shy and awkward to tell that that, so nothing ever developed. We were too young anyway.
My first real paying job other than mowing lawns was during the Summer when Ucle Oss would drive his old Ford pickup truck loaded with all his family and many neighborhood kids over to Pauls Valley to "detassle" corn for a new hydred strain. That paid $5.00 per day. Things were looking up!
In my Freshmn year I got a paper route over on 18th & 19th streets and later got another added on 20th & 21st streets. At first I had to walk the routes but finally went down to either Ada Auto or mayber it was Western Auto and talked them into selling me a new Schwinn bicyle for $45.00 on credit. [$5.00 down and $5.00 per month until paid out] That credit experience came in handy later.
Daddy & Momma decided to move to the country, so, we wound up in a pretty nice home situated on forty acres between Homer and Oakman. I cleared out brush and mowed approximaely 3-5 acres with a "push mower" and our place really looked nice. My schooling shifted to Byng for the last semester of my Sophmore year and I was invited by Coach Bill Kohler and Coach Marvin Stokes to go out for basketball and baseball in their respective seasons.
Then I spent the first part of that Summer working for Wickham Packing Company, but, had to have an emergency appendectomy, which, was in my 16th year. You should have seen that cute little nurse trying to give me an emema...why, I could have pinched a barbed wire in to!
The next three Summers were spent in Mendota, California, working for the Southern Pacific Railroad during the cantaloupe season. Two memorable purchases were made...one being a new Bulovia wrist watch [$50.00] and the other a Hawaiian ukelele [$10.50] that has been a constant companion over the years. Mendota was the cantaloupe shipping center of the world. Each year I earned over $500.00 to bring home after expenses and would happily hand it over to Momma to apply to whatever or however it was needed...she could stretch a dollar farther than anyone I have ever known and never ever splurged on herself.
I made excellent grades and had a lot of fun in high school. There was a special young lady in my life the last two years of high school....Carolee Ann Wall and we were what your would call "steady".
After returning from Mendota, California in the Summer of 1953 I volunteered for the draft and went into the Army on November 19th of that year because I could not find employment in Ada. [The standard reason being, I was subject to be drafted into the military] Camp Chaffee, near Fort Smith, Arkansas, was my assignment for basic training. I recall while being transported on the Greyhound bus from Oklahoma City to Camp Chafffee that I had the opportunity to share some of my religious upbringing with some of the other guys and I was tagged with the nickname "Deacon Jones" which stuck with me. I didn't take it as an insult but rather as a compliment. The first 8 weeks of infantry training and the second 8 weeks of artillary training were rather routine because I was in excellent physical condition. Because of my higher-than-average test scores I was offered the opportunity twice to attend Officer Training Schook, but, I refused both times. I just wanted to serve my time and go back home instead of making he military a career in those troubled times. There were 587 of us in the Artillary company that I was in and all except five of us were shipped directly to Korea. The other five of us were assigned to the 505 Military Police Company at Camp Chaffee after being interviewed by the Company Commander of that company. I feel the Good Lord saved me from having to go to Korea and have also reflected my thoughts many times as to how many of the others might not have made it back home from battle.
Of the twenty three [23] months served in the U. S. Army [Serial No. US 54141018] 16 months were spent at Camp Chaffee and the final 7 months were spent in Fort Shafter, of Honolulu, Hawaii. USARPAC That was sort of like a paid vacation. I was assigned to HASP [Hawaiian Armed Service Police], which, was a special "spit shined" group. In May of 1955 I was in the chosen Honor Guard for the Memorial Day Services at the Punch Bowl [ National Military Cemetery]. A hugh crowd of thousands was present. It was a very humbling experience to honor our war dead.
My first ocean voyage was on a 3-stacker, the USS Gaffey from Oakland to Hawaii and I was given my second ocean voyage on a 3-stacker..the USS Sultan from Hawaii to Oakland and both trips resulted in my being sea sick for 5-days each way. I was given my honorable discharge on 5 Oct 1955 at Fort Ord, California. From there I rode a bus to Oakland and took my very first airplane ride to Dallas, Texas and wound up hitching on home to Ada, where I ran into my girfriend Carolee at the corner drug store. A nice sweet hug and kiss was in order! She drove me home.
Carolee sorta had marriage on her mind, and even made a most honorable and sincere offer to continue working and pay for a college education for me, but, I just couldn't take her up on the offer because I was just to proud I guess. I attended Draughn's Business College in Oklahoma City for approximately five (5) months in 1956 that my parents had prepaid for me while still in high school. The GI Bill paid me $80.00 per month while in school. I also supplimented my income by first working at the Weintroub Shoe Store and then at the Hahn-Cook Funeral Home. Carolee decided it was time to date other guys as I was the only fellow she had ever dated and she found another boyfriend after the Christmas Holidays. [We have been in contact at class reunions and etc. and are still good friends]
That Summer I moved back to Ada with my parents long enough to earn and save some $85.00 working at Halverson's shoe store to go job hunting in Hobbs, New Mexico, leaving on October 5th of that same year. I had heard of the "oil boom" at Hobbs and decided that I could get a bite of that 'big red apple" and not hurt anyone doing it.
The very next day after arriving in Hobbs, I started driving a dump truck for Jess Harwell Construction Company @ $1.00 per hour. Their motto was "Good Clean Dirt Work". My two room apartment was over on East Gypsy and the bathroom was in the rear of the house and I had to share it with at least three other families. Again I had to walk from the far Southeastern edge of Hobbs to the Northern outskirts to work and then back at night because I did not have a car. Bathe, fix a sack lunch, hit the pillow, and start over the next moring wa the daily routine.
The so called rainy season started and while I had some spare time I went down to the local employment agency and found a job with Continental Supply Company at $300.00 per month and they furnished upstairs rooms for each of us three "single bucks" and a nice shower...plus the fact that we had maid service too. Boy, I was really moving up now! Of course we were on 24-hour call to service the drilling rigs but that wsn't bad at all.
Finally, I decided to try to get myself some wheels. I went to a local finance company that had just re-possessed a two-tone red and black 1956 Ford Fairlane Victoria hard top coupe and I talked with the manager about it. He first wanted to know where I worked and how much I earned and then about my credit experience and the only thing I could think of was the time that I had purchased that new bicycle back in Ada. He picked up the phone and called them and they still had the records....he hung up, smiled at me and said "young man you have just bought yourself a car".
I met & fell in love with Jane and we were married 15 Jul 1957, having just gotten a new job at Union Supply Company the week before and now a new bride. What stability!
In November of 1958, I was given the opportunity to set up a "central purchasing program" for the company of four stores that eventually expanded to six locations and was transfered to the Artesia, New Mexico home office.
Sometime in the Summer of 1966 I started associating with a country-western band called "The Roustabouts". I had written some songs and we were allowed to use the local radio station facilities where we recorded some of them and I sent them to Chet Atkins, who was the President of the Country Music Association down in Nashville, Tennessee at that time. Mr. Atkins responded most favorably with a full page letter inviting us down for an audition. Before we could make final plans, two or three members of the group decided they didn't want to risk losing their current jobs and decided not to go. So much for a musical career!
I worked for Union Supply Company for ten [10] years and decided to go into business for myself with the blessing of my wife Jane. First at Elida, New Mexico on 1 Jan 1968 and then moved down to Tatum, New Mexico in November 1968. We sold out in 1969 and built a new ranch style brick home out on 20-acres. The company that bought us out later sold it back to us in 1974 for less than half of what they had in it plus a new 5100 sq. ft. Stran Steel Building. The business has been good to me and my family. We now have two [2] stores, Tatum & Jal that are debt free but I would like to sell out and retire to my hobby of Family History.
Life has been a fun trip for the most part....and there are a few more trails I'd like to explore if given that opportunity.
NOTEWORTHY FACTS: I have never smoked or used any form of tobacco...I have never taken a drink of alcohol....nor have I ever used any form of drugs in my lifetime!
My all time favorite movie...MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE.
As of 29 Dec 2006, I have some 160.179 individuals and 54,176 marriages in my genealogy database and have it on Web Page <www.earljones.net> and expect it to keep growing.
Gotta go now....someone, someplace, or just something is probably calling!
Earl L. Jones
1. "Jane" was 7th of 8 children and was reared for a period of time in the Salvation Army Bruner Home, an orphanage in Greenville, South Carolina.
2. She lived in the homes of several of her siblings growing up and later in the home of Ray & Marie Frazier (foster parents) while in High School in Hobbs, New Mexico.
3. Jane served some twelve years on the Tatum, New Mexico, School Board.
4. At age 44 she went to College [First at New Mexico Junior College of Hobbs, New Mexico] and then got her Masters Degree in Speech Language Pathology from Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, New Mexico at age 50. It should be noted that she was on the Dean's Honor Roll every year.
5. Presently she owns her own business "Therapy Plus" in Hobbs, New Mexico, providing a majestic service to all ages.
6. Once or twice in a thousand years the hand from heaven clasps the hand on earth in perfect fellowship, the divine drama unfolds, and the whole course of mortal events changes. The first for me was when this writer fell in love and soon thereafter married Jane on 15 Jul 1957. The second is still in the future....maybe even in the next life when hopefully we will be joined for all time and eternity along with our kindred dead.
1. BIOGRAPHY: Jonathan was born 13 Oct 1977 to Wanda Bonner (mother) and Charles Alexander (father) who was a black man. These parents were not married.
2. Earl & Jane Jones got "JB" right out of the Hobbs, NM hospital at age 3-days as a foster child and was later adopted.
3. Jonathan is half black....white mother....black father.
4. At age eight months we formally adopted him.
5. His biological mother is Wanda Bonner of Hobbs, New Mexico. (White)
6. His father was from Texas. (Black)
7. He wrecked his 1998 Ford Tarus on 11 Jan 2002 down on the truck by-pass at Hobbs, New Mexico, and it rolled at least once and maybe twice, landing upright and he drove it to a friend's house to park it. LUCKY TO BE ALIVE, but he didn't receive a scratch.
8. As of 8 Jul 2002 Jonathan was living at La Tuna in Anthony, New Mexico.
9. Living in El Paso as of 2005.