Lloyd & Dorothy Jones

At the April 2005 meeting of the directors for the Panhandle State Association, the board selected the Lloyd and Dorothy Jones family of Goodwell to be the Honored Family at Homecoming 2005. Though Lloyd and Dorothy are now deceased, their Panhandle legacy lives on through their children and grandchildren. On September 10, the Jones family will ride the Honored Family float in the homecoming parade and will be recognized at half-time of the football game.

Lloyd Rendo Jones was the son of the Reverend Lowe Rendo Jones, a Methodist minister, and Bessie (Lloyd) Jones. An Alabaman by birth and a Texan by adoption, Reverend Jones was associated with the Indian Mission Conference of the Methodist Conference in the Oklahoma Territory, and in 1904 he homesteaded a quarter section of land northeast of Goodwell while serving Goodwell and Texhoma for the Oklahoma Methodist Church South. In 1908 Reverend Jones married Josephine Burgess who bore him two sons, Jesse and Burgess. Josephine died in 1912 and Reverend Jones then married Bessie Lloyd who added four more children to the Jones clan: Lorraine, Vesta, Joe, and Lloyd Rendo (named after his mother).

Lloyd was born on the family homestead on October 19, 1918. He was graduated from Goodwell High School in 1936 and went on to attend Panhandle A & M College that fall, and continuing in classes through the fall of 1938, majoring in mathematics. After war broke out in Europe, Lloyd moved to California to enlist in the service, but was not allowed to do so until November 1941. He joined the United States Navy training as an aviation machinists mate. While stationed in Southern California from 1941-1947, Lloyd met his bride to be, Dorothy Duryea, and they were married in Long Beach, Calif., on May 9, 1945.

The daughter of Raymond and Mary Duryea, Dorothy Margaret Duryea was born on January 7, 1921, in Lexington, Neb. Being graduated from Lexington High School, Dorothy attended Draughon’s Business College in Denver, Colo. Along with two of her sisters, Dorothy moved to Southern California to lend her energies to the war effort. She met Lloyd Jones in early 1945 and they were married a few months later.

Lloyd and Dorothy would have their first child, daughter Judy, while they were still living in California. Following the end of WWII, the Jones’s moved to Goodwell and the family farm in 1947. Lloyd farmed the homestead and later purchased more land, farming with his brother, Jesse, until Jesse’s death in 1960. In winters Lloyd worked at the B&G Grocery Store. He served many years as a member of the Goodwell Board of Education, including one stint as president. Lloyd loved to read and, after his retirement, enjoyed playing poker with friends in Goodwell.

Dorothy was a homemaker in the truest sense of the word. She and Lloyd would have six more children after Judy arrived: Michael, Karen, Barbara, Mary Anne, Kathy, and Diane. In addition to raising seven children, Dorothy would spend her later years working for the U.S. Postal Service. Both she and Lloyd were active in St. Peters Catholic Church of Guymon.

Lloyd Jones passed away on April 29, 1983, and Dorothy would join him ten months later on February 22, 1984. Husband and wife were interred in the Goodwell Cemetery. In their lifetime, Lloyd and Dorothy would see all seven children graduated from Goodwell High School and from college, with six of the seven being Panhandle State College or OPSU graduates.