Philanthropist Jones Dies at 97

Bernice Young Jones, the 97-year-old philanthropist and widow to the late Jones Truck Lines founder Harvey Jones, died Sept. 10.r

Dan Ferritor, a University of Arkansas professor and its former chancellor, was a good friend of Jones and a co-trustee of her philanthropic trust since 1997. r

“What was neat about her was that she had an unfailing sense of how to help the community she lived in,” Ferritor said. “She recognized that the community had given so much to Harvey and to her that she wanted to give back and she gave back to the school system, education system, the health care system and her greatest contribution back which was the Jones Center.”r

Jones had spent the last years of her life overseeing the Jones Family Trusts, which gave millions of dollars to colleges, hospitals, religious organizations and other socially minded causes in the state. She was also an adviser to the $2.3 million Harvey and Bernice Jones Community Fund, established in 2002 as part of the Northwest Arkansas Community Foundation.r

She was an honorary chairwoman of the Harvey and Bernice Jones Eye Institute’s Advisory Board at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, an $11.5 million, 56,000-SF facility established in 1994 with money from the Jones Trusts.r

Benice Jones’ philanthropy earned her many honors:r

n On Feb. 26, 1996, President Clinton awarded her the Presidential Citizen Medal for her service to humanity.r

n In 1992, she was the first woman to receive the Springdale Chamber of Commerce’s Outstanding Civic Service Award.r

n On Nov. 13, 2002, she received a Lifetime Philanthropic Achievement Award by the Northwest Arkansas Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.r

Jones’ philanthropy took many shapes. In October 1995, the Harvey and Bernice Jones Center for Families and Children, a 235,000-SF facility dedicated to the intellectual, cultural and spiritual enrichment of families, opened in Springdale.r

“She was a school teacher for a period of time and during the last few years she always had a smile when children would come up and talk to her,” Ferritor said. “Her smile would just turn into a beam of joy, and when they’d say, ‘Mrs. Jones, we thank you,’ she would always say, ‘I can’t believe they’re thanking me.’r

“To her it was pure joy to be part of her community and her love for education always shone through. You can see it in the Springdale schools, at the University of the Ozarks and at Ouachita Baptist University.”r

Jones also supported Northwest Medical Center, founded in 1952 with the help of Harvey Jones and others who donated money to the facility. In 1992, she pledged $25 million to the hospital, giving it $2.5 million per year for 10 years, often providing extra money to cover other expenses.r

A Life of Givingr

Bernice Jones was born on Halloween in 1905 to Allie May and Francis Fair. She had two sisters, Hazel and Floy, and a brother, Ross. They were raised on a farm in Oak Grove.r

She studied at Oak Grove School and then Springdale High School, graduating from there in 1924. She then attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville to study teaching and taught at Harmon and Oak Grove Schools from 1926 to 1931.r

During that time, she regularly rode the train from Springdale to Fayetteville to attend classes at the university. On one trip, she met a young businessman, Harvey Jones. After a long courtship, Bernice and Harvey were married on Harvey’s birthday, Aug. 19, 1938, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The two would be married for 51 years.r

Harvey Jones had established Jones Truck Lines Inc. in 1933. Over the next 60 years, it became the largest privately owned truck line in the United States. The couple had amassed a fortune by the time they sold the Springdale-based company to Sun Co. in 1980 for about $56 million. The couple used much of the proceeds from the sale to further their philanthropic efforts. Harvey Jones, in poor health since the sale of Jones Truck Lines, died in 1989. Bernice Jones, who had attended to much of the couple’s philanthropic affairs through the 1980s, continued giving. Among others that benefited from that giving: the Bernice Young Jones School of Performing Arts at Ouachita Baptist University, the University of Arkansas, Harding University, Hendrix College and Arkansas Children’s Hospital.r

In the mid-1990s, the Jones Trust was rocked by scandal, when it was discovered that H.G. “Jack” Frost, a co-trustee of the Jones Trust, had stolen $1.8 million from the fund. Frost was found guilty of stealing the money and was sentenced last summer to 70 months in federal prison.r

Both Mrs. Jones’ Sept. 13 visitation and her Sept. 14 funeral service were held at the Jones Center. She was buried in Bluff Cemetery in Springdale next to her husband, the late Harvey Jones.r

The Joneses have no children and no apparent heirs.