Elmer Owen Jones

CASA GRANDE - Elmer Owen Jones, 88, a longtime Casa Grande teacher, died on Nov. 30, 2018.

Mr. Jones was born on Dec. 23, 1929, in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, near Wright City, the fourth of seven children of Sam B. and Mary Addie Jones. He grew up in that area and moved to different logging camps until 1940, as his father was a timber worker. His parents bought a farm near Battiest and did subsistence farming while his father continued to work in timber in the winter months. Mr. Jones attended elementary and high school in Battiest and graduated in 1948. He attended Wilburton, Oklahoma, Junior College for a year, then transferred to what is now Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, graduating in 1951. He taught high school in Oklahoma for 3 1/2 years.

He moved to Arizona in 1955 and taught elementary school in McNary for three years. He moved to Casa Grande in 1958 and taught at Central School, Casa Grande Junior High School and Saguaro School, a total of 31 years in Casa Grande before retiring in 1989. He received a master's degree from what is now Northern Arizona University in 1961. He met, fell in love with and married Jimmie Lee Chapman in 1965. He loved to read all types of books, walking, hiking and solving crossword puzzles.

He and his wife had a son, Kevin Owen Jones, three grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and three stepgrandchildren.

Visitation beginning at 10 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 7, at United Methodist Church of Casa Grande, with funeral at 11. Burial in Mountain View Cemetery.

J. Warren Funeral Services, Cole & Maud The Gardens Chapel in charge of arrangements