Shelley Jones, educator, philanthropist, and 'mother to the community,' dies at 84

Friends of longtime educator, philanthropist and arts advocate Shelley Jones believe it was appropriate that she passed away on the weekend of a day honoring the maternal force, seeing as she served as a mother to the Tuscaloosa community.

Jones nurtured during days teaching at Northington Elementary, when chosen as first principal for Woodland Forrest Elementary, as first woman chair of the city school board, as a co-founder with Dee Ward of Tuscaloosa Children's Theatre, and as board member and sparkplug behind numerous organizations, from Kiwanis and DCH to Elevate Tuscaloosa and the city's Bicentennial Committee.

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"She made the whole community her child," said Jackie Wuska, president and CEO of United Way of West Alabama. Jones died May 10 at the age of 84.

When pandemic shutdown loomed, Jones was chosen to guide the 2020 UWWA campaign. Her relentless drive, insistence on excellence, and gift for saying hard things in such a way the hearer could take it in, made her the top choice, Wuska said. When some suggested keeping goals modest due to the unusual times, Jones averred: "We're going to shoot for the moon."

Under her leadership, the campaign rolled on, via virtual and video encouragements from Jones, Nick Saban and others, raising more than $4 million for its member agencies.

In the campaign-opening video announcement, she said: "During these challenging times, each of us has to do more than we've ever done before, to share our blessings ... If you’re one of the fortunate with a home, a job, healthy food on the table, please continue donating a bit more to our neighbors who no longer have these basic needs."

"It was the fact that there was so much need that really drove her," said Wuska, who became close friends with Jones from their work together. "The whole community was her child, and we all benefited from her."

Services for Shelley Jones will be 2 p.m. May 20, at First Presbyterian Church, 900 Greensboro Ave. in downtown Tuscaloosa. Visitation will follow in the Family Life Center.

'A legacy of educational excellence'

Cathy Randall had known Jones since the 1970s, when Shelley's husband Tom Jones had mentored her husband Pettus, at the University of Alabama School of Law. Randall got word of her friend's passing within minutes of the Alabama Choir School concert Friday, the final performance with Doff and Laurel Procter as leaders. It seemed an appropriate blessing, she said, hearing children singing beautifully for the next hour and a half, closing with a benediction.

"It was kind of hard to keep it together," said Randall, who carried on in leadership at Randall Publishing, and with the family philanthropic efforts, after her husband Pettus Randall III died in 2002. "I am so grateful for that gift, hearing these voices as Shelley was passing into heaven."

Tom, who died in 2017, and Shelley Jones moved to Tuscaloosa from Kentucky, for his job at the UA School of Law. Both worked as educators, and stayed supportive partners in all respects, Randall said, committing to doing any- and everything they could to make the world a better place.

Shelley Jones taught at Northington before being chosen to lead the then-new Woodland Forrest Elementary, designed as an innovative school with cutting-edge approaches to learning. During her many years as principal, the school won numerous awards, created its first Adopt-A-School partnership with First National Bank, and crafted a drama program that evolved into Tuscaloosa Children's Theatre.

Though she retired as principal in the mid-1990s, that was hardly the end of her working days. Jones became the first woman appointed to the Tuscaloosa City Board of Education, and its first woman chair, serving the board for eight years. Jones was among the first members of the UA College of Education board of advisers, and taught as an adjunct instructor in the UA Honors College.

"We are deeply saddened by the passing of Shelley Jones, a true icon in the field of education and a beloved member of our university community,” said UA President Stuart R. Bell. “Shelley's legacy of educational excellence, compassionate leadership and relentless advocacy for student and community welfare will continue to inspire us and exemplify the values we hold dear at the University of Alabama.”

Making a difference in the community

Jones served on the Elevate Tuscaloosa Task Force; for the Tuscaloosa 200 Bicentennial Committee, as community involvement chair; and on boards of the DCH Foundation, Community Foundation of West Alabama, and the United Way of West Alabama, among others.

Her numerous awards include the University of Alabama National Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2017; three PTA Outstanding Local Unit in Alabama awards; District III Alabama Association Elementary School Administrators Distinguished Principal Award; State PTA Outstanding Elementary Principal of the Year; National PTA Phoebe Apperson Hearst Outstanding Educator Award Honorable Mention; and Alabama National Distinguished Principal Award.

She was selected for the Leadership Alabama Class XIV in 2003, later serving on its board of advisers; and was named Tuscaloosa County Citizen of the Year for 2006; named a Pillar of the Community in 2007; and in 2010, was inducted in the Tuscaloosa County Civic Hall of Fame. The Jones together were named in 2022 as the Alexis de Tocqueville Society of UWWA's Family of the Year.

When Jones was in the room, conversation would be thorough, productive, and full of laughter, friends said. She possessed the grace to make anyone feel comfortable. When she saw you, she saw only you.

"She had laser focus on the person," Randall said, "and not just laser-focused, but laser-loving. She just loved on every person she was with; she was 100% loving.

"If you wanted to get something done in this community, you called Shelley Jones. If you wanted to see an exemplar of making a difference in this community — that one can, and how one can ― then you looked at Shelley Jones."

'A force for good'

Virginia and Sam Parks were longtime friends. Her grandparents had built one of the first houses in Indian Hills. When the Joneses moved to Tuscaloosa in 1962 they created the house next door. Virginia's mother Marla married Roger Sayers, one-time UA president; the Sayers and Joneses became close friends.

Tom and Shelley grew up in Greensburg, Kentucky, but didn't begin dating until their days at the University of Kentucky. Tom, fourth child of a Presbyterian minister, served four years in the U.S. Air Force to pay his way through college. When Shelley, whose family had been in the banking business, arrived on the UK campus in 1957, Tom lent her his car, to help her more easily attend rush activities off-campus. The kindness led to conversations, and an invitation to a Kappa Alpha Party.

They married July 15, 1961, just two days after Tom passed the bar exam. They taught for a year in Ann Arbor, Shelley as a first-grade teacher, Tom as a writing instructor at the University of Michigan School of Law, before he found and accepted the UA post.

"We couldn't have picked two better godparents for our two girls," said Virginia Parks. "They couldn't have children of their own, but children were just everything to them." The Parks' older daughter is named for her mother; the youngest is named Shelley.

"Just a few weeks ago, she told me 'I never thought I'd have a namesake,' " Virginia Parks said. "That was very special to her."

Though they knew the Joneses as friends, as family, the Parks couldn't help noticing an effect when Shelley was along.

"It didn't matter where we went, out to dinner or wherever, there was always somebody coming up saying 'I was your student in first grade,' or 'You were my principal,' " she said, "and most of the time, she remembered."

Even well into her 80s, and after Tom's death in 2017, Shelley continued to be up and about, going and doing. She was an excellent fundraiser, Virginia said, because you couldn't tell her no. She would diplomatically encourage people to do as she saw right.

The Joneses shared a mindset, that offering education, background in arts and music, could benefit everyone, but especially those who'd been marginalized, those who needed a little more.

Her diplomatic discipline extended to children. Anyone who attended Friday school shows for Tuscaloosa Children's Theatre, where busloads of kids unloaded and piled into the Bama Theatre, could attest to Jones' superpower.

"You can imagine, all those squeaky seats, all those kids fidgeting and talking," Virginia said, "but all she had to do was raise her hand, and in about 20 seconds, the place would be completely silent."

One of their children's friends thought Marla and Shelley's godmother "owned the Bama."

"And on those days, she did," Virginia said. "I was telling Sam ... when you know somebody like family, sometimes it doesn't dawn on you, until later in life, that they had such an impact on so many people in the community.

"She was such a force for good. Tuscaloosa has lost such a benefactor."

Reach Mark Hughes Cobb at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Shelley Jones dies at 84, leaving legacy of community service