Obituary of Minnie Stowe Jones ~ 1989

Transcribed by Joan S Dunn

Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch Dec 18 1989

Minnie S. Jones, 102, dies in Hopewell - Mrs. Minnie Stowe Jones, widow of 
G. Roland Jones, died yesterday at her residence in Hopewell.  
She was 102.  
Mrs. Jones formerly lived in the Enon area of Chesterfield County.  
Born May 29, 1887, in Merritt, N.C., she was one of six children of a 
farming family.  "She recalled her parents talking about the Civil War and 
what different members of her family had done during the war," said her 
daughter, Mrs. Eva Smith of Hopewell.  
"She talked about the first automobile she saw. It belonged to someone in 
a town three miles away in Oriental, N.C. She saw it on the highway in 
front of her house. She said it was frightening. She said her brothers 
couldn't wait for an opportunity to ride in a car.  
"She also remembered the first time she saw an airplane fly over her house.
She said at first they were distressed and couldn't understand what was 
happening."  
When Mrs. Jones finished her schooling, she took a test that qualified her 
to be a teacher.  
But "her mother died when she was very young -- about 15 or 16, and her 
father asked her to stay home and take care of the family instead of 
pursuing a teaching career," Mrs. Smith said.  
Mrs. Jones married a farmer in 1913 and was widowed in 1929.  
During her years in North Carolina, "She was noted in our community for 
being a good nurse. Of course, she had no nurse's training. When there was 
illness in any family, I remember people coming to her, even at night, to 
ask her to come to help. She enjoyed doing things for people. She told me 
that if she ever had had the opportunity for training, she thought nursing 
would have been what she wanted to do."  
In 1931, during the Depression, Mrs. Jones and her daughter moved from 
North Carolina to Hopewell so the daughter could seek work. 
In 1935, they moved to the Enon area.  Mrs. Jones was a member and former 
president of the Ladies Bible Class of First Christian Church in Hopewell. 
She attended church regularly until she was in her mid-90s.  
Mrs. Jones had lived in a nursing home in Hopewell since March 1987. 
Survivors besides her daughter include two grandchildren, four 
great-grandchildren and one great-great-granddaughter.  
A funeral will be held tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Gould Funeral Home Chapel in 
Hopewell. Burial will follow in Bermuda Memorial Park of Chester.  
The family suggests that memorial gifts be made to the John Randolph 
Nursing Home Memorial Fund.





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