Oct. 8, 1924 – Nov. 7, 2012

NATCHEZ — Services for Mary Rogers Davis Jones, 88, of Natchez, who died Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012, at her residence, the Grove Plantation, will be at 2 p.m. today at Trinity Episcopal Church with the Rev. Walton Jones officiating.

Burial will follow at the Natchez City Cemetery under the direction of Laird Funeral Home.

Visitation will be from noon until service time today at the church.

Mrs. Jones was born Oct. 8, 1924, in Natchez, the daughter of Rogers Gorin Davis and Nina Pintard Davis.

She grew up in Natchez and attended a little one-room school with one teacher who was charged with teaching six grades. When Mrs. Jones was only two years old, she rode horseback with her sister, Page, to fulfill the school’s minimum student enrollment requirement the school needed and played in the sandbox during the school day. Mrs. Jones attended Natchez High School and graduated in 1943 and was forever active in many reunions of the “Fighting Five” classes of Natchez High School.

After graduation from high school, Mrs. Jones attended the University of Mississippi. World War II had erupted and everybody was joining the service and she found college not as much fun with no boys attending. Her sister who was a WAVE recruiter for the U.S. Navy invited Mrs. Jones to come to Memphis, Tenn., and talked her into joining. Mary Rogers stated, “I felt I wanted to do my part to help my country.” She enlisted Oct. 10, 1944, and was honorably discharged in May 1946. She was very proud to be a Yeoman Second Class.

Returning to the University of Mississippi, Mrs. Jones met John Moye Jones of Macon. They were married July 19, 1947, at Trinity Episcopal Church. They moved to Murfreesboro, Tenn., where John had his first job in accounting at the Duck River Electric Power Association. Afterwards, they moved to Shelbyville, Tenn., for a short time. Mary Rogers and John moved back to Natchez in 1954 and built their house where she lived until her death.

Mrs. Jones was a member of the University of Mississippi Alumni Association. She was a lifelong Episcopalian and member of Trinity Episcopal Church and actively served the Episcopal Church Women. She was a member of the Pilgrimage Garden Club, the Daughters of the American Revolution, Colonial Dames of America and the Royal Order of the Crown.

Mrs. Jones served on the Board of Directors of the Southwest Mississippi Electric Power Association from 1983 to the present.

She was preceded in death by her husband and her parents.

Survivors include two daughters, Cynthia Jones Cooper and husband, Ed, of Arlington, Va., and Claudia Jones Stephens and husband, Jack, of Natchez; two grandsons, Rogers Davis Stephens and wife, Lynn, and William Adams Stephens and wife, Gretta, and their children, Mary Katherine Jones Stephens, Anna Grace Roberts Stephens and newborn Payton Jack Stephens, all of Olive Branch; one sister, Page Davis Parker; and her childhood sweetheart, William D. Simmons.

The family extends heartfelt thanks to her faithful caregivers, Debbie Simmons, Linda Payne, Lisa Jenkins, Kalinda Payne and Maria Payne, for their extraordinary unfaltering love and service.

Pallbearers will be Dennis Switzer, Rogers Stephens, William Stephens, Jack Stephens, Ed Cooper and Joe Bailey.

Honorary pallbearers will be the directors of Southwest Electric Power Association, Robert St. John and the members of the Natchez High School class of 1943.

Memorials may be sent to Trinity Episcopal Church, Trinity Episcopal Day School or a charity of choice.

And when at length her course is run,

Her work for home and country done,

Of all the souls that in her sailed

Let not one life in thee have failed;

But hear from heaven our sailor’s cry,

And grant eternal life on high!

Navy hymn, “Eternal Father, Strong to Save”

Online condolences may be sent to www.lairdfh.com.