Eugene M Jones

Gene was born in Antlers, Oklahoma on May 29, 1922 to Harrison and Ethel Jones. Life was a struggle for Gene as a youth although he always took everything in stride, just as he would in his later years. He went to Jones Academy Indian School as a young child and later to Chilocco Indian School. He was in the CCC program in Basin, Wyoming building reservoirs. Gene served in the Navy during World War II on the USS Mellette as a coxswain in the South Pacific and navigated an LST that dropped off Marines on the beaches of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Gene was in the Air Force Reserves during the Korean conflict and was called up again to serve in Texas.

Gene worked at Tinker AFB for 28 years as an aircraft sheet metal mechanic. In 1967 he was part of the Tinker support team that worked on the Titan II and Minuteman missile. During the Viet Nam War he made many trips to the base in Thailand to repair damaged planes. He retired in 1974, but continued to work in developing rental properties in Harrah and Midwest City. No job was too much for Gene to tackle and he took pride in the pretty two-bedroom house he built at Lake Eufaula. Gene spent many pleasant hours in the last eight years at the Full Circle Senior Adult Day Center.

Gene is survived by his wife of 36 years, Nancy, children Bobbie Jones and wife Charlotte, Sandra Jones, and Melvin Jones, stepchildren Michelle Brockmeier and husband Tim, John Grassi and wife Norma Ting, sister Joyce Wright and husband Roy, grandchildren Bobbie Jones, Jr. and wife Brenda, Toni Fox and husband Tim, Sean Yelle, Michael Grassi, Joseph Rangel, Melissa Morehead, Letitia Rangel, also many great grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Gene was preceded in death by his parents, Ethel and Harrison Jones, daughter Tommy Lee Jones Swanson, siblings Harrison Jones, Jr., Dorothy Mead, Bob Jones, Jack Jones, and Richard Jones. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Full Circle Adult Day Center.