front&center: The Rev. Frank Jones

RIVER VALLEY and OZARK AREA — The Rev. Frank Jones never considered himself an artist. He readily admits to having been a good linotype operator and a printer “back in the day,” but it’s doubtful he ever thought those two talents would qualify as “art.” He’s a storyteller, too, but again, would that qualify as art?

The Arkansas Arts Council evidently considers the oral tradition of storytelling an art and has named Jones the 2009 recipient of its Folklife Award. Jones, who lives in Conway with his wife, Sue, was recognized as a fourthgeneration storyteller on Oct. 6 at the 2009 Governor’s Arts Awards and Individual Artist Fellowship Recipients Recognition held in conjunction with ArtLinks, the Arts Council’s annual statewide arts conference, at the Hot Springs Convention Center. He received a piece of sculpture by Arkansas artist Mark Rademacher of Eureka Springs.

“Never in my life did I think I would be categorized as an artist,” he said with smile. “I’m glad to be included.”

“I’ll tell you, this is very affirming,” said Jones, 80 and a retired Methodist minister. “I’m much more moved about this than I ought to say.”

Jones told Bible stories during his 30 years in the ministry. He began telling stories in other venues after he retired from the ministry 16 years ago and moved toArkansas from Missouri.

“Once I got into storytelling, I discovered it was an art,” he admitted. “And now to be recognized as an artist for my storytelling, that’s all right.”

Ruth Voss, Faulkner County librarian, and Sarah Mattingly, adult programming librarian, nominated Jones for the Folklife Award.

“They asked me if they could nominate me,” Jones said. “They are the ones that caused this to happen.

“Evidently the judges were impressed by two things: First, that I’m 80 and still doing it (storytelling), and second, that I’m a fourth-generation storyteller.”

Jones said he tries to preserve and share the culture, folklore, history and heritage of the Ozark people through his stories, which can be heard at 7 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month at the Faulkner County Library in Conway.

Jones said the first storyteller in his family was his great-grandfather, Theodore Pease Russell.

“Next came his daughter, Nora Russell Jones, who was my grandmother; then her son, Alfred Jones, who was my father; and then me,” Jones explained. “But there’s a fifthgeneration, now - my son Rock. He’s always preached and has used more stories in his sermons than I have.”

Jones said his great-grandfather and his family moved from Connecticut to Ironton, Mo., when his great-grandfather was 18.

“He was in the Civil War, in a battle in Missouri at what is now Fort Davidson State Historic Site,” Jones said. “He got too close to cannons, which caused a hearing loss.

“During the last 20 years of his life, he wrote a weekly column for the local newspaper called ‘Old Times.’ In thatcolumn, he recalled memories of his life in Connecticut and in Missouri.”

Jones said back in the 1970s, two or three Missouri historians “got to realizing this might be a primary source for Missouri history. The University of Missouri Press brought out a book of about 50 percent of the columns he had written. They edited it until it was fairly readable and published it under the title A Connecticut Yankee in the Missouri Ozarks.

Jones visited Fort Davidson not long ago and watched an introductory film with a voice describing what life was like back in the early times.

“They credited my greatgranddad,” Jones said with a laugh.

Jones’ own stories are recollections of people as well. One night’s program at the local library featured these stories: “It Takes a Worried Man to Sing a Worried Song” and “A New Tin Roof on the Old Log Cabin,” both of which are stories about his family, and “Beautiful Rose,” a folk tale he adapted for schools that talks about developing self-esteem.

“I write my own stories,” Jones said. “They are for the most part real stories. I write them out and then read them to my audience. That’s just the way I do it.”

He said he tries to write five or six new stories a year to add to his repertoire.

Jones said he has not published any of his stories, but at Christmas he does make a book of stories he has told that year and makes copies for his wife and their three children.

The Joneses’ oldest son, Rock Jones, is a minister and president of Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. He and his wife, Melissa, have three children, Alissan, a fifth-year student at Hendrix College; Christopher, a sophomore at Hendrix; and Anna, a high school sophomore in Ohio.

Their second son, Brick Jones, is a member of the information technology services department at the University of Texas in Austin. He and his wife, Dana, have two children, Sam, a freshman in high school, and Johanna “Jo Jo,” a fourth-grader, both in Austin.

The Joneses’ daughter, Dr. Pebble Jones Sutherland, is a pediatrician in Conway. She and her husband, David, who is an associate professor of math at Hendrix, have three children, Susanna, a sophomore at Hendrix; Clay, a sophomore at Conway High School East; and Reid, an eighth-grader at Bob Courtway Middle School.

Jones was born in Ironton, Mo., but moved to Flat Iron, Mo., when he entered high school.

“I graduated from Flat Iron High School and attended two years at Flat Iron Junior College,” he said. “Those five yearsmade me what I am. I was a boy when it started and a man when it ended.”

Before high school, Jones worked at a weekly newspaper, The Ozark Record, in Ironton.

“I started working there right after I graduated from eighth grade,” he said. “Daddy had always been interested in printing, and he went into the newspaper business. He bought a printing press. I wanted to learn to operate the linotype machine, setting hot type, but he told me I had to be 16 before I could learn. I was making plans to learn, but we moved 25 miles away to Flat Iron. There, I worked for the St. Francis County Journal, which was published five days a week. I did general floor work, ran the press and set type. I’ll always be proud of what I did; I was a good linotype operator andprinter.”

Jones would later run a linotype machine at the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway while he was a student at Hendrix.

“I worked for Frank Robins II on the night shift in the back, and his son, Frank III, who later took over as publisher, worked up front,” he said with a smile.

From junior college, Jones came to Conway to attend Hendrix College, which is affiliated with the Methodist church. He said he had wanted to be a minister since high school.

“When I was a senior, we had a “Senior Day” when people came in and talked about different occupations,” he said. “I had been thinking about it. I thought about teaching, journalism, and, I suppose, law. But by then, I had begun to consider the ministry.The first time I said it out loud, however, was when I was a freshman in junior college.”

After graduating from Hendrix, Jones attended Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Upon graduation, he moved back to Arkansas, where he served three churches - the campus ministry at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and churches in Eureka Springs and Van Buren. He moved back to Missouri, where he stayed until retirement in 1993.

In addition to storytelling each week at the Faulkner County Library, Jones also gives a weekly Bible lecture at First United Methodist Church, and once a year in September he teaches part of a ministers’ course of study at Hendrix College, lecturing on the Old Testament.

Jones said he had two mentors for his storytelling: Donald Davis of Ocracoke Island, N.C., also a retired minister, and Faye Hanson of North Little Rock,a gifted and talented specialist with the Little Rock School District.

“Much about me is from him,” Jones said of Davis. “And Faye was really helpful to me in finding my way as a storyteller.

“I had no idea at 80, that I would still be doing this. I had surgery in 1982, and not many thought I would still be around. I had bladder cancer and had to have a urostomy. Sometimes I forget that I had cancer, but I recall it every year by participating in Relay for Life. I volunteer and tell stories to other survivors.”

Jones said he no longer accepts invitations to tell stories. Over the years, he has gone into schools and told his stories, and for a time, he told stories at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View. He was also on the artists’ registry of the Arkansas Arts on Tour program.

- crolf@ arkansasonline.commatter of

factAge: 80 Family: Wife, Sue; sons, Dr. Rock Jones of Delaware, Ohio, and Brick Jones of Austin, Texas; daughter Pebble Jones Sutherland of Conway; and eight grandchildren Occupation: Storyteller and retired Methodist minister Hometown: Ironton, Mo.

Hobbies: Printing. About 30 years ago, I was able to buy an old printing press that dated to about 1910.

I enjoyed piddling with that for years. I sold it a few years ago Most people don’t know: I’m a 27-year cancer survivor I cannot live without: My family The world would be a better place if: More people told stories Favorite quote: “The world is too much with us,” by William Wordsworth Favorite book: All books by John Grisham Biggest fear: That I’ll live long enough to come into problems with my mind and senses, such as sight Someday I’ll: I’ve done it all. As time has gone by, I’ve been able to say goodbye to all of the things I wanted to do My worst habit: Telling people what to do

River Valley Ozark, Pages 146 on 11/08/2009

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