Aileen Mateer Jones

Aileen Elizabeth Mateer Jones, 95 died on March 2, 2023 in Greensboro, North Carolina at the Care and Wellness Center facility at Whitestone, the Masonic and Eastern Star Home (“MESH”), after a courageous battle to recover from the stroke she suffered on February 13, 2023—of all days the day before Valentine’s Day.

On Thursday March 9, 2023 visitation (with light refreshments) will be held from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. followed by a memorial service at 2:00 p.m. led by Chaplain John Connor. The location for both visitation and memorial service is Hanes Lineberry Funeral Home in downtown Greensboro at 515 North Elm Street.

Mourners will follow the hearse in their own vehicles to the burial ceremony at Greensboro’s Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Mrs. Jones was born on October 2, 1927, in Greensboro. Her parents were Jasper Lee Mateer (Senior) and Maggie Francisco Mateer. When she died, Mrs. Jones was their sole surviving child of this generation of the Mateer family. She was predeceased by two sisters (Mamie, Ruby) and six brothers (Herbert, Hue, Vance, Charles, Jasper Lee (Junior) or Jay, and the youngest child Don). Their sister Helen, born in 1921, died of illness in 1923.

Mrs. Jones was youngest surviving sister and second-to-youngest child.

Mrs. Jones was approximately three years old when the famous Stamey’s Barbeque opened in Greensboro.

She graduated from Greensboro High School (now Grimsley High School) in the spring of 1944, having finished eleventh grade (no twelfth grade was required then). During high school she played on the girls’ basketball team and was on the school newspaper staff.

While a student at Greensboro High School, one of her assignments was to write an article after interviewing the famous music composer Sigmund Romberg when he visited Greensboro. She interviewed Mr. Romberg in person on November 20, 1943.

After graduating from high school she attended McClung Business College.

During World War Two the United States Government issued war bonds that private citizens purchased to finance the war.

While working at Gate City Paint Company, then-Miss Mateer sold bonds to the store’s customers. She sold the most war bonds in Greensboro during a certain period of time in 1945. In acknowledgement of that achievement, she was honored with a luncheon in downtown Greensboro and was presented a corsage and a war bond. She also received a certificate dated June 1, 1945, from the Secretary of the Treasury which read, “For patriotic cooperation rendered in behalf of the War Finance Program this citation is awarded to Aileen Mateer [hand printed name].” It bears the signature or facsimile signature of Henry Morgenthau Junior, Secretary of the Treasury, and the illegible signature of the State Chairman. It has a stamp noting that she was a member of the “7th WAR LOAN TOPPERS’ CLUB.”

Many years ago she summarized her patriotism during World War Two by saying words to this effect: “During the war I was a patriotic little person.” She, in fact, was.

After attending McClung Business College, her first job was as a bookkeeper at Gate City Paint Company. Roy Jones was a painter patronizing the store. He was the oldest brother of Lieutenant Elmer C. Jones, an Army officer in the United States Army Air Corps and in the United States Army Air Forces. He was an Army officer in the Army’s aviation component since that component would not become a separate service, the United States Air Force, until 1947.

During World War Two, Lieutenant Jones flew 28 combat missions over Japan in 1945 as the radar operator in a B-29 “Superfortress” bomber crew in the Pacific War ending the war with 489:50 combat flying hours. One flight was the longest nonstop aviation combat mission of World War Two, a “single ship” flight (solo, no escorts or inflight refueling) lasting 23:00 hours. The flight was 4,650 miles from the crew’s base in Guam to Northern Japan and back to Guam. He received one of his two Distinguished Flying Crosses for his performance during this unique mission.

Aileen Mateer and Elmer Jones were married on June 28, 1947. Before the wedding, then Miss-Mateer worked in the accounting department of Carter Fabrics, which later became the gigantic fabric corporation J.P. Stevens. An executive in the company thought so highly of her that he ensured she received first-class material from J. P. Stevens to be used by her mother since her mother made her wedding dress.

She was a member of Centenary United Methodist Church; the Rockingham County Historical Society; and the Guilford County Historical Society. She was a charter member of the Reserve Officers Association League of the United States (ROAL) Ladies Club in Greensboro.

She was the Secretary of John Robbins Motor Company which for years was the General Motors truck dealership on LEE STREET in Greensboro. After the founder of the company, Elmer’s Uncle John Robbins died in 1965, Elmer managed the dealership until it closed in the 1980s.

She was related to the Hatfields of the famous Hatfield-McCoy feud in West Virginia and Kentucky in the mid-1800s to the late 1800s. Her relationship dated to a married couple, Jim Vance and Elizabeth Hatfield, having a daughter, Amy Vance, who later became Amy Vance Francisco. Amy was the mother of Maggie Francisco Mateer, the mother of Mrs. Jones, thus making Elizabeth Hatfield the great-grandmother of Mrs. Jones.

Proud of her Southern heritage, she was active as a member of Guilford Chapter Number 301 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, an organization of women whose ancestors were Confederates.

James Martin Mateer, her fraternal grandfather, was a Confederate soldier in the 45th Regiment of North Carolina Troops from 1862 until his capture at Petersburg in 1865. He was wounded several times during the war and fought at Gettysburg. She was known as a “Real Granddaughter” since her grandfather was a Confederate soldier.

Up until her final labored breath, Mrs. Jones displayed the determination, strength, and toughness found in the Mateer family genes and in her grandfather James Martin Mateer who survived approximately four years of combat in the American Civil War.

In particular and unfortunately, as a young and middle-age married woman those genes were required to protect Mrs. Jones from, and allowed her to survive, distress and darkness descending from undeserved and unprovoked psychological “warfare” declared upon her by her venomous, hateful, and vicious older sister Mamie who saw her youngest sister as a “target of opportunity” for bullying and abuse. Her unrelenting vile behavior caused havoc and distress in the Jones home for years and great difficulty that left psychological scars within Mrs. Jones.

Such history must be acknowledged since it was and is a part of the life of Aileen Jones, but likewise should be soon forgotten.

Other family history is not so bleak. Mrs. Jones was the precious living history who grew up during the Great Depression and remembered the times in which she lived as a child and as a teenager. In her youth, radio was “king” of the media since television was either an idea or in its infancy. She heard important news by radio: the abdication of King Edward in 1936, who was the King of the United Kingdom and the exploits of gangster John Dillinger.

Politically she was a proud member of “The Silent Majority.”

The Jones family lived on Hobbs Road in “Friendly Acres” since 1956. During that time, unlike today, much of Hobbs Road was gravel with few vehicles traveling it. Today it is a paved major thoroughfare with a constant traffic flow. The Joneses are perhaps the only family living on Hobbs Road for so long.

In later years to fight the dementia and Alzheimer’s disease that robbed her of her short term memory, she waged a valiant, constant, and brave battle against these maladies by constantly working crossword puzzles; she must have worked hundreds of them. Unfortunately, at best they only kept her dementia and Alzheimer’s disease at bay for only a few short years. Despite her dementia she stayed engaged in life. She loved the hostile feral cat that adopted the family, and she surrendered control of the household to that cat everyone loved and loves and who magically changed into a lazy housecat.

She also enjoyed afternoon “tea time.” Her favorite time of the day was twilight, which she found to be beautiful. She loved and enjoyed her back yard with all its trees and wildlife. Her mind was still sharp even into her later years. She asked her son, an only child, if he were an only child. Since he was an only child she added, “I’m an only mother.”

She was kind, funny, cooperative, and gentle in her later years. As one of her caregivers said in July 2019 about her wit and sense of humor, “If you want a good time, just sit with her.”

Her husband, Lieutenant Colonel Elmer C. Jones United States Air Force Reserve (Retired), died in 2014.

Surviving are her son and only child Colonel Charles A. Charles A. Jones, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (Retired). Several Mateer relative survive her including nephews Ed Mateer (Vicki) and Lindsay Mateer (Sharon) and niece Jan Mateer (Dan) Crook. Several Jones relatives survive her including her husband’s youngest brother and his son, her nephew Wallace Jones.

Her only son Charles wrote this obituary. In doing so he had two objectives.

The first was to capture the family history of his mother that is found in the first part of this obituary.

The second is to thank, without boundary, all those who cared for his mother—especially caregivers from Comfort Keepers. Her primary Comfort Keepers caregiver was Anita Tomaszewski of New York. Anita’s constant loving devotion, care, and dedication went well above what one would expect in today’s impersonal society. Readily apparent was Anita’s affection for and chemistry with Mrs. Jones, who called Anita “my Yankee” since she could not remember Anita’s name. To say the least she kept Anita entertained is an understatement. The loss of Mrs. Jones is for Anita traumatic and devastating—Anita lost her best friend.

Caregivers Sue Hight and Addison Middleton also provided Mrs. Jones a noteworthy degree of care and attention.

He also thanks, without limits, the staff members of the Care and Wellness Center at the Masonic Home for the outstanding care they provided his mother.

Last but not least, his appreciation and regard are limitless for the members of the Authora Care team assigned to care for his mother at “end of life.” In particular, Nurse Amy Johnson alerted Charles when his mother was near the end of her earthly life, and Chaplain John Connor’s presence, demeanor, and prayer shortly before Mrs. Jones departed were welcome; comforting; dignified; and unforgettable.

In short, the caregivers, the Masonic Home staff members, and the Authora Care members attended the mother of Charles A. Jones such that, in his opinion, finding better care—especially at end of life—would be impossible.

Facilitating, planning, and managing the financial resources of Mrs. Jones was essential from the time she lost her husband in 2014 until the end of her life. Performing those tasks

was a super-responsive, caring, and competent financial team comprising two superb financial advisors from Merrill Lynch: Mark Witte and Haley Kennon. Also monitoring her financial resources and providing expert advice was Dave Leeper, a dedicated and highly competent first-class Certified Public Accountant.

Mrs. Jones was a dedicated wife and mother who supported her husband and son in their careers by devoting her time and energy to helping them as they lived and continue to live life. She supported her husband as he managed his truck dealership. She assisted Charles greatly as he participated in Cub and Boy Scouts and in Junior Achievement.

She taught her son many lessons during his early years at home that proved invaluable during his current 68 years of life. Those lessons were not always pleasant (forced household cleaning), but they taught him self-sufficiency and how to look after himself, lessons that would pay dividends in spades in the faces of irate, impatient, hostile, and demanding Marine Corps training personnel Charles encountered in 1981 during his initial training in Marine Corps Officer Candidate’s School, Quantico, Virginia.

She thought so much of his Marine Corps affiliation as the only Jones or Mateer to serve in the Marine Corps that in 1983 she gave him a beautiful scarf stitched with the Marine Corps emblem and its motto “Semper Fidelis” (always faithful). A friend of hers gave her the scarf in 1943 or 1944 during World War Two. She also gave him a small pin with the letters “USMC” and a small emblem of a bulldog, the Marine Corps mascot, a present a high school friend gave her during the war.

Charles bought his own sympathy card that reads in part, “No matter how ready we thought we were . . . saying good-bye is still hard because it changes everything.” The card’s message cautioned against trying to determine the future: “Right now it’s enough to remember, to honor, to mourn.” No better words could be found to describe our current circumstance.

One last incident shows the character of Mrs. Jones and the family from which she came. When her brother Charles left the Mateer family home to join the Army during World War Two, she made up his still-warm bed so that her mother would be spared that sad task. She received that care from her mother: when her son Charles, who wrote this obituary, asked his Grandmother Mateer (probably in her 80s or 90s) what the most memorable event was in her life, he expected her to say the invention of the telephone, the television, the automobile—or really walking on the moon. No—the response was from a caring and compassionate mother who knew what was important in life: “Knowing that both my two boys [Vance and Charles] returned home from the war [World War Two].”

Appropriately and consistent with her character and the Mateer character, she wrote atop the photograph used in this tribute: “Much love—Aileen.” The date is “12-25-45.” The recipient is unnamed—but could be anyone who was the recipient of the affection and attention of Aileen Elizabeth Mateer Jones.