Jon Talton

A fourth generation Arizonan, Jon was raised by his mother, Vivian Talton, and his grandmother, Ella Darrow Hammons, in a home often short on money but rich in music, books and a focus on events of the day at the dinner table.

Growing up in the Phoenix neighborhood now called Willo, Jon and his friends engaged in dirt clod fights in the alleys, rolled oranges under passing cars on Seventh Avenue, and spent time looking up at the sky and daydreaming from Paperboys Island. It was a happy day when he rode his bicycle to the Phoenix Public Library for his first library card. He also rode his bike to a local television station to collect NASA promotional films, and watched astronauts first walk on the moon with his grandmother. Later, he and friends fired off model rockets in the desert. He loved his camping trips all around central and northern Arizona as a Boy Scout, which also taught him desert survival skills.

Jon was proud to have attended Kenilworth Elementary in Phoenix, where many names from Arizona history also went to school. At the outstanding Fine Arts Department at Coronado High School in Scottsdale, he developed his love of theatre, especially lighting and set design. He studied history, theatre and music at Arizona State University, and furthered his history studies at Miami University.

Jon was drawn to three vocations, which he termed callings. A registered EMT Paramedic following high school and during his university days, he provided first line medical care on the streets of Phoenix. A college instructor in the theatre department at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Jon was instrumental in helping create the Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival, now in its 46th year. A newspaperman for 40 years, beginning as a reporter and writer, Jon worked all around the country as an editor and columnist at major metropolitan dailies. He returned to Phoenix in 2000 as Business Columnist at the Arizona Republic. At the time of his passing, Jon was the Business and Economics columnist at The Seattle Times.

Jon was the author of 14 novels, including the David Mapstone Mysteries and the Gene Hammons novels, both series set in Phoenix. His nonfiction history of Phoenix was published in 2015. At the time of his death, Jon was writing Unknown Trouble, a novel inspired by his days “on the ambulance.” He enjoyed meeting readers at bookstores and book festivals around the country. He was a prolific writer on Facebook sites devoted to Arizona history.

With his wife Susan, Jon spent weekends on road trips all over the state, instilling in her a love of Arizona as it lived on in his memory. The two of them also hosted many impromptu cocktail hours on the front porch of their home in Willo. If you imbibed in Jon’s favorite martinis, you know he liked them “very cold and very dry, like my personality.”

The grandson of a railroad man, Jon loved trains and train travel, to the Grand Canyon and Tucson growing up, and later with Susan on long round-trip journeys on the Sunset Limited, Coast Starlight, Empire Builder, and California Zephyr. He also constructed in the garage on Holly St. a model railroad featuring Phoenix Union Station and the warehouse and produce district.

Jon is survived by Susan, his wife of 25 years.

Donations to the Phoenix Public Library or the Society of St. Vincent de Paul are suggested in lieu of flowers.

A memorial service is planned for 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, February 24, at First United Methodist Church, 5510 N. Central Ave., Phoenix.