This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Wm.2ADEB/2688 Message Board Post: Printed with Permission - The Albuquerque Journal Thursday, April 24, 2003 Longtime Resident Louise Jones Was Renaissance Woman By Paul Logan Journal Staff Writer Louise Jones, who tackled life head on, was considered a Renaissance woman because of her diversity of interests. A longtime Albuquerque resident, Jones died April 14 following a stroke. She was 85. Her memorial service will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Michael's, 601 Montaño NW. She will be buried at Santa Fe National Cemetery. Jones, about 5-foot-3 and about 100 pounds, had a soaring spirit, according to retired Air Force Gen. Ed Giller. "Her stature was on the modest side, but she sure was lively — full of energy, enthusiasm and ideas," he said. She also had excellent social skills, staging great parties and being a superb cook, he said. The Gillers were close friends of Jones and her late husband, retired Air Force Col. David Jones. He was once head of the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, which became Phillips Laboratory. "She was outgoing, very friendly," Giller said. "She stood her ground ... in a pleasant and friendly way." Mary Louise Andrews was born in Samson, Ala. She was reared in Bonifay, Fla., where her father was a prominent attorney and politician, said her daughter, Susan E. Jones of Albuquerque. She met her future husband at a Valentine's Day dance in Pensacola. They married later that year — the summer of 1942. He died in 1992. He was a Republican and she was a Democrat, which sparked heated but intelligent discussions. They also had a fierce bond and partnership. He would have "bowled over" someone with less gumption, her daughter said. In another era, her mother might have run for office and been in politics, but "marriage was the thing" then, she said. "She didn't really feel like she had any disappointment," Susan Jones said. "She always just did it. I don't think she held herself back." Louise Jones raised three children while an executive secretary at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. She wrote short stories, painted and sculpted, and bred Arabian horses. Her daughter said she also designed and tailored clothes as well as the many homes they lived in, played ragtime piano by memory, loved to sing and dance and kept dogs, cats, horses and cattle, as well as "guard geese and guard turkeys." She encouraged her children to pursue educational opportunities, said Susan Jones, who is Bernalillo County special projects coordinator. "She typed my 120-page master's thesis ... and insisted that I have a career and never forsake an intellectual life," her daughter said. Louise Jones also insisted that her three children know the outdoors. They were taken on camping and horse pack trips while still in diapers and spent nearly every summer at their Colorado cabin. "She liked to tell how, on a trip to Yellowstone when I was 2, she chased a bear away from my playpen with a broom," Susan Jones said. The Rev. Brian Taylor of St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church said Louise Jones served on the church's governing body for three years and also taught Sunday school. At home, she was known for rising and throwing open the curtains, sometimes with such enthusiasm that she would rip the curtains, Taylor said. "It said a lot about her personality — she greeted life with joy," he said. "She always had a smile and a good word..." Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., praised Louise and David Jones, adding, "All of us who were their neighbors in Albuquerque benefited from the character and integrity they brought to our lives." Another daughter, Lisa Jones, died in 1999. Survivors include a son, David R. Jones IV of Tampa, Fla. Copyright 2003 Albuquerque Journal