Dalton Ray Jones' Obituary
Dalton Ray Jones of Dunedin, Florida passed away on Monday, October 11, 2021 at the age of 91 ½ years. Born in Alabama on April 15, 1930, descending from proud southern farmers on both sides of the family, he moved to Dundee, Florida as a youth and to Dunedin in the 1950’s.
Career
Dalton was a Sergeant in the United States Army, fought in the Korean War and was deployed to other Asian and United States locations via land, sea and air. He was a successful furniture retailer in Clearwater and Largo where he took great pride in serving the community and helping many who needed extra support furnish their homes. Dalton formed close long-term bonds with many of his clientele, employees, tenants, neighbors and others who he crossed paths with. Dalton aided his employees with personal development and several advanced to better lives in the private and public sectors. He was a real estate investor in Indian Rocks Beach, Clearwater, Largo and other locales and did some investing in local early stage business securities. In his elder years, he propagated flowering white peace lilies to be given through the church.
About Dalton
Dalton worked hard – that was how he was. He eschewed luxury, ostentation, imbibing, waste and idleness, following family traditions, although he did not impose his values on others; in fact he had many friends from all walks of life, eons before diversity and tolerance became en vogue. Dalton was a dignified, stern man, except when he was tender. Thinking, principled, god-fearing, early-rising and funloving (in his own way), with an unforgettable exaggerated laugh. Incongruously, he was a clothes horse (nothing too loud and most of them remained in the closet). During school Dalton was a Boy Scout and a star athlete; he hung out with the talented Cypress Gardens water ski team. The day after he graduated from high school, he was recruited by Badcock, a large furniture enterprise, primarily to pitch for their corporate ball team (which materially advanced in the rankings due to his prowess) and also to help out at headquarters, where he rapidly learned the ropes, eventually leading to his lifelong career in that industry with that very same first organization. Although he wouldn’t admit it, Dalton was very smart, probably a genius; even into his 90’s he could recite the map of Pinellas County and tell you what businesses are at each location, at least were. Much later on, he enjoyed rocking, tool collecting, yardwork and especially vigorous walking, which was rewarded with longevity.
Alabama and the Family Reunion Tradition
Dalton was a family man. There were 20 siblings in his parents’ families and in that entire extended family, family was the absolute priority. Some immigrated to Florida and elsewhere in search of a better life, which they found. They all reunited each year in Alabama on July 4th at the “old place”, which included a glorious wooden family church, open to all. If you sat on the steps with them in the evening and listened to their songs of faith, such as The Old Rugged Cross, led by Aunt Lois and her preacher son Hubert, accompanied by him strumming guitar chords, your life would be forever richer (in the important way). The boys there were all deadly accurate with their slingshots, kept tucked into their waist bands lest any uppity squirrel dare scamper within range. The food was an overflowing banquet, all homegrown except for the abundant wild raspberries and blackberries, which the barefooted girls baked into piping hot pies. There was home farmed beef, eggs from the henhouse, fresh milk, churned butter and game aplenty; fewer chickens running around than when things got started up. You never saw so many watermelons in your life, iced down and devoured under the blazing sun. There were some cowboys there, the kind that actually rode horses, used lassos, busted ponies and mended fences. They did some pine timber farming to help keep the place up. Papa Jones, the patriarch, was there dispensing six ounce cold sodas, just like he had done since the 1800’s from his general store out by the road. At least one red clay embankment was flat leveled with fireworks of intensities now outlawed, not to mention the aerial extravaganza.
Dalton’s maternal grandmother read the entire Bible two times and was well through the third when she passed. No small feat, given her work burdens and poor eyesight, mitigated with a large round magnifier, wood framed. Her hands were cut up from picking cotton, beautiful nonetheless. There were unsubstantiated rumors that she smoked a corn cob pipe and had some native Indian blood in her. His grandfather - “Boss Hammett” - was a big man who did some sharecropping when family and hired labor were insufficient to utilize their vast land.
Oral history has it that Dalton’s father – Walter, the oldest of 11 siblings, frequently walked 14 miles after working long hours in the fields, including in snow, ice, sleet, hail, rain and other inclement weather, to court his young and especially attractive mother – Lucille, who also hailed from another locally prominent farming family who grew cotton, corn, other produce and livestock.
Florida
After moving his family to Florida, Dalton’s father labored in citrus production, was a volunteer firefighter and village leader and an avid fisherman for sport and sustenance. His mother arose most days long before dawn to wash clothes on a washboard, then starch them (including her husband’s work trousers, stretched immaculately on metal frames), bake country biscuits and cornbread for the lunch buckets and prepare a hearty breakfast for her family before heading out on foot to a citrus packing house to toil; she also sewed most of the family clothes and patchwork quilts and doilies with a sewing circle in her active Baptist church work. At home, around an old upright piano which dominated their cozy living room, the family sang gospel songs together including Jim Reeves arrangements such as Amazing Grace, I Am a Pilgrim, I’ll Fly Away (oh Glory) and Carter Family numbers; also pop and folk songs including Elmer’s Tune, Three Coins In the Fountain and You Are My Sunshine. His older sister, who was the valedictorian of her school, left college prematurely to enable Dalton to attend for awhile, due to the financial realities of their childhood. That sister went on to raise five boys nearby, which Dalton looked after. His precious little sister created lush, colorful and fragrant corsages and bouquets from the family flower gardens each Sunday for church, extra special for revivals. Dalton’s father was suspicious of pastors who wrote down their sermons in advance, having grown up around brush harbor and camp meetings where the pastor served as a real time prophetical conduit from the above, sometimes speaking in tongues. There was an inside joke that most of the family enjoyed the plump ripe persimmons grown on the homestead, except Dalton’s father held out that they smelled so bad the cats buried them – his snarly demeanor faded to a sly grin and then everybody broke out laughing; this was iterated over and over again, somehow funnier each time. After supper, the family enjoyed watching televised westerns, such as Rawhide, Wagon Train, and Bonanza and The Beverly Hillbillies and some evangelical shows; later on Dalton made sure his parents received the first color TV set. They grew gardenias, hydrangeas, numerous vegetables and such from Western Auto seeds and cuttings when possible and periwinkles and cabbage when things were a little tight. Those were the happiest of times. Dalton was born into that milieu, always humbly considered himself just a country boy and was loved by all; he passed it on.
Lineage
Dalton was preceded in death by his parents Walter and Lucille Jones, of Dundee and his sisters Katherine (Bob) Cook, Tavares and Fay (Eugene) Ball, Winter Haven. Dalton is survived by his nephews, Steven R. (Dolores) Cook of Miami, Kenneth E. (Dawn) Cook of Homosassa, James K. (Michelle) Cook of Tavares, Reverend Thomas R. (Britton) Cook of Edina, MN and David R. (Carla) Cook of Tavares; friend/neighbor Pearlie Sudler of Dunedin; and stepdaughters Gail (Dennis) Mcneal and Cindy (Gary) Smith. He was also preceded in death by his former spouse – Marceline. He is also survived by 9 grandnephews/grandnieces and 8 great grandnephews/great grandnieces, the youngest of which – beautiful Saoirse – was 19 days new upon the passing.
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