Snohomish-born Jerry Jones holds a Snohomish High School “Kla-Ta-Wa” 1954 yearbook which he is in.
High school reunions bring back floods of memories for people. Good memories flooded the mind of a local Snohomish man while standing at his alma mater, Snohomish High School, where he graduated over 70 years ago.
Luther Jerome Jones, “Jerry” to his friends and family, remembers things like folk dancing in the gym, glee club during activity period after lunch, prom and his favorite class, woodshop. He still has those bookshelves that he created in that class.
You are lucky today to see the age of 70 let alone celebrate 70 years since you graduated from high school.
The class of 1954 will celebrate their amazing feat in a park in Snohomish later in July. Jerry isn’t able to make that event which is what prompted the trip to the high school for a lovely tour by Principal Carolyn Combs and the opportunity to savor the memories.
Jerry was born, bred and has lived most of his life in the same home for 80 years near the Machias area. It is a farm house built in the 1890s which his grandparents purchased in 1906. His parents, Luther and Lenore Jones, moved onto the farm in 1920 when they married, wanting to raise their four children in the country way. Jerry loved his life on the farm. The grandparents began as chicken farmers then his parents eventually brought dairy cows onto the farm and sold the milk to Darigold. As every good farmer knows you need to be able to change with the times, so years later about 30 beef cows marched onto the farm.
He was in FFA, and his FFA jacket still fit him at the age of 78 when he passed it to Lisa Hagen’s daughter when she joined FFA. His sisters moved off the farm, but Jerry stayed on the farm after graduating from Snohomish High in 1954 and took care of his aging parents. He waited to marry his first wife, Betty, at the age of 44 in 1980. His Uncle Andrew later left him the farm. Jerry raised animals and hay on his 30-acre farm along the river and hauled hay from Eastern Washington for 20 years as well.
Betty passed to cancer and he buried her at Machias cemetery where many of his family members still rest in peace.
Marilyn and Jerry married in 1998 after meeting through square dancing at the Garden City grange in Snohomish. They have spent years motoring through travel adventures in their motorhome and attending many dances and festivals. They retired to a home in Montana where they reside on the same property with Marilyn’s daughter and her family. Jerry made his first airplane flight at the age of 86 years old on a trip from Arizona to Montana. Allegiant Airlines did a feature story on him in 2023 in their summer magazine. There were pictures of Jerry in the cockpit where the pilot bestowed in him his first pair of wings!
Marilyn and Jerry have been like grandparents to my children when they were young.
On a recent night, this ol’ Snohomish Panther shared his stories and the little details that have made up his life, and I realize that his is definitely “a life well lived.”
