Robert Raymond Jones, of Pampa, went to be with his Lord on the 12th day of November in the year 2020 at the age of 93 years, 5 months, and 16 days.
Graveside services will be at 2:00 PM Monday, Nov. 16, 2020, at Memory Gardens Cemetery with Tim Jones and Ian Jones, Raymond’s son and grandson, officiating. Arrangements are by Carmichael-Whatley Funeral Directors.
Raymond was born the 27th day of May in the year 1927 to Ernest Prentis Jones and Ethyl Dunaway in Butler, Oklahoma. He was the youngest of 6 children born to Ernest and Ethyl. At the age of 2, his mother left with his 2 oldest sisters and went to California.
That left 4 children at home for his dad to raise and so his dad went about finding a new wife to help in raising the children. A few years went by and his dad married his stepmother, Mamie Childers, and in the process, he gained a stepsister named Vauncil. As he grew older, Raymond saw a need to get a job and go out on his own. At the age of 14, he started driving a truck. He drove the truck all over Oklahoma and Texas until he joined the U. S. Army Air Corps in 1945 at the age of 17 to do his duty for his country. While he was in the Air Corps, he was stationed overseas in Okinawa. He was honorably discharged in 1947 and returned to the states. He came home to the Allison, Texas area as his folks had moved there to operate one of the gins. It was there that he met his future wife, Myrtis La France Hall.
They were married on Raymond’s 21st birthday in 1948. Over the next 4 1/2 years they had 3 children together (Larry, Karen, and Tim). While around Allison he worked at farming. In 1957, he moved his family to Pampa where he went to work as a carpenter with one of his brethren at the church. A little later he went to work for Hardin and Roth Oil Company cleaning out pump jacks. In 1958, he began building a home for his family in northwest Pampa. He eventually transitioned into the construction business. He started building houses in the same area his home was in over the next few years. In 1963 their fourth child, Leslie, was born. Raymond continued building houses in other area towns in the Texas panhandle. He soon began just remodeling and additions. He continued to do some related work up into his early eighties.
He had a very strong work ethic and he taught his children and grandchildren to have the same work ethic. Raymond served as a baseball coach in the Babe Ruth league for several years before serving as the President of the Pampa Optimist Club from 1971-72. He developed cancer in the 1980’s and had surgery to remove his prostate and bladder in 1986 and was given a urostomy. He wore an ostomy bag for 34 years making him one of the longest surviving if not the longest survivor with a urostomy. Raymond and Myrtis celebrated their 72nd wedding anniversary on May 27th of 2020. He was above all a Christian and served as an elder in the Wells St. Church of Christ and continued to serve after the congregation moved to 500 N. Somerville St.
He was preceded in death by his parents and stepmother; four sisters, Dorothy, Evelyn, Mildred, and Arleta; a brother, Charles; a stepsister, Vauncil, and an infant brother that died at birth. He was also preceded in death by a daughter-in-law, Debbie Grayson Jones, Tim’s wife.
Survivors include his wife, Myrtis, of the home; a daughter, Karen Jones of Wheeler, Texas; three sons, Larry and wife, Vicky, of Conroe, Texas, Tim of Allison, Texas, and Leslie and wife Cathy of Norman, Oklahoma; nine grandchildren, Stefanie Jones Bailey, Jennifer Kirby Arnold, Darrin Jones, Heather Jones Shields, Ian Jones, Beau Jones, Nathan Jones, Chaney Jones, and Rachael Jones Whinery; seventeen great grandchildren; and a host of other family and friends and brothers and sisters throughout the Church of Christ brotherhood.
Memorials may be made to the Church of Christ at 500 N. Somerville in Pampa, Open Heart Hospice of Amarillo, or the charity of your choice.
Sign the online register book at www.carmichael-whatley.com.
