Musical talent was his ticket out of town.
Instead, he remained at his mother’s side.
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Even when Boston begged.
“No way would I leave,” he said of his mother, an invalid for 20 years. “You take care of your own.”
His mother, Nora, 81, died in 1991, 38 years after her husband, Joel, died.
Today, Jones, who looks younger than 77, still lives in a house on what used to be his family’s 70-acre farm in Monroe. It doesn’t take a visitor long — only a few steps — to realize that his love of travel and extensive collection of horn instruments dominant his surroundings. There are large flags representing some of the countries he has visited hanging from the walls in his living room, he converted a back patio into a music room, and there are endless stacks on compact discs on the floor.
Jones recently was recognized during the Monroe High School homecoming for being a 1957 graduate, and more importantly, dedicating 31 years of his life to the school’s music program. Jones taught music and band at McKinley and Amanda elementaries in Middletown and at Lemon-Monroe and served as assistant band director in Monroe.
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The homecoming celebration was “an incredible experience” because he reconnected with some of his former students he hadn’t seen in decades, he said.
“Lots of emotion” is how he described the weekend events. “You are thinking about a lot of things. A lot of your life goes by you quickly.”
Jones was destined to perform. His family moved from Mount Vernon, Ky. to Monroe in 1945. He was in the first grade and since he was the only student in school who owned a suit, he carried the crown in the May Queen ceremony.
“I loved the band at that time,” Jones said.
That love affair has created music for 70 years.
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As a teen, he took lessons from some of the most noted instructors in the area. His mother drove him to Cincinnati every Saturday for music lessons.
He started marching in the Lemon-Monroe High School band when he was in sixth grade, and continued through high school and at Miami. He graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Miami, majoring in trumpet, minoring in voice. His junior and senior year at MU, he also taught for two years in Gratis. Then he began his teaching and band career in Middletown and Monroe.
As a music teacher, Jones always carried a screw driver and needle-nose pliers in his shirt pocket. Masking tape was always at his side. He remembers right before an ensemble concert when the pad was falling out of a student’s instrument. He repaired it with a piece of chewing gum. Another time, after someone accidentally sat on a student’s flute, he gently twisted it until it worked again.
He was the musical version of MacGyver.
There also was a time when the Monroe marching band performed before a 1970 World Series game between the Cincinnati Reds and Baltimore Orioles at newly-opened Riverfront Stadium. The Jackson 5 sang the national anthem.
Jones plays with the Southwestern Ohio Symphonic Band, Cincinnati Orchestra and Butler County Philharmonic Choir and has traveled to Russia 13 times.
There’s a noticeable difference between being a flawless performer and someone who lacks emotion, he said.
“There are people who play every note correct, sing every note correct. But there is no heart,” he said pointing toward his chest. “When I play my trumpet that’s the way I feel. I always want to be at the top of my form. But it’s always a challenge. The feeling you have when you’ve really done a good job. You can’t beat it.”
He picked up a few of his horns and played parts of songs. He’s a perfectionist, this J. Earl Jones. When he didn’t like the sound, even before an audience of one, he started over.
“You are expected to be at a high level mentally and spiritually,” he said of every performance. “Music leads you to a very good place.”
Even when that place is home.
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