Obituary of Elaine Robinson Jones

Elaine Robinson Jones, born August 27, 1943, died at home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on June 1, 2024 after a brief illness. She is survived by her husband, John Hodge Jones; two sons by previous marriages, Mark Barnes of Boston, Massachusetts and Michael Willers of Northampton, Massachusetts; sisters Miley and Susan Robinson, and brother Oscar Robinson, all of Alabama; two grandchildren, Jonah and Talia Willers; and the three children of her husband, Bart Jones, Greg Jones and Bonnie Jones, who were as dear to her as her family by blood. She was preceded in death by her beloved brother, James Lee Robinson. Descended from early settlers of Alabama, Elaine was born in Wetumpka, Alabama, daughter of Miley Manson Robinson, a logger and timber broker, and Mary Helen Boone, a businesswoman. She attended a one-room elementary school in Jackson’s Gap, Alabama and graduated from Dadeville High School. She studied at Auburn University, earning a B.A. and M.A. in education, and later earned a doctorate at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. She began her career as an elementary school teacher in Montgomery public schools, later becoming principal of the lower school at Montgomery Academy in Montgomery and then at Franklin Road Academy in Nashville. In the Metro Nashville Public Schools, she served in the Reading Task Force and as Director of Staff Development for the entire system. She taught at universities in the Nashville area, including Peabody, Belmont and Trevecca Nazarene and toward the end of her career, consulted for various school systems in 35 states. In the 1970s, she was a consultant to the U.S. embassy schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In those and other roles, she was a strong leader, profoundly influencing students and teachers over her decades of service. She almost never had a student in whom she could not see great promise, continuously challenged them to study harder and act better, and was widely adored by students and parents. She was well traveled and well read, curious about the world from an early age, and at various times could be found in the deserts of North Africa, on the Trans-Siberian Railway, in Outer Mongolia, and in Malaysia. There were many examples of her quiet generosity. Elaine had lived in Shiraz, Iran during the Iranian Revolution, and in its aftermath, she took many political refugees from Iran into her home on Music Row in Nashville until they could get on their feet in this country. Over many years, until their deaths, she prepared food every night for two elderly sisters who lived across the street and, dodging the traffic on Music Row, carried dinner to them. In Montgomery, during the turbulent school integration in the 1960s, she mentored and tutored one of the first African-American children to attend the formerly all-white Robert E. Lee High School, volunteering to do this because that girl was the beloved grandchild of a close friend. A great satisfaction in her life was that this girl succeeded beyond all dreams of her grandmother, eventually becoming a high-ranking official in the Department of Defense. A true Southerner, she was friendly to all, loved many dogs over many years, and never met a stranger. She was frank, practical, tough, a tireless worker, a faithful friend, and, like her family before her, a Christian of deep belief. She will be greatly missed, and fondly recalled, by her many family and friends and by her husband John Jones, whom she dearly loved. Visitation with the family will be 9:00-11:00am Tuesday, June 4, 2024 at Murfreesboro Funeral Home with the funeral service t follow at 11:00am. interment to follow at Evergreen Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, gifts should be directed to the Memorial Scholarship Fund at Crescent Church of Christ or to MTSU.