JONES, Jenkin Lloyd 1911-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born November 1, 1911, in Madison, WI; died February 24, 2004, in Tulsa, OK. Journalist, editor, publisher, and author. Jones was the editor and publisher of the now-defunct Tulsa Tribune. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, where he earned a journalism degree in 1933, he failed to find a newspaper job because of the difficult times caused by the Great Depression. Jones therefore went to work at his father's newspaper, the Tulsa Tribune, as a reporter. He became editor of the paper in 1941 and added the responsibilities of publisher to his duties in 1963. His work at his family's newspaper was interrupted by World War II, during which he was a communications officer serving in the Pacific theater. In 1953, during the Korean War, he also worked for the Secretary of the Navy as a special assistant, and in 1969 he was president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Most of his time, however, was spent at the Tribune, where he remained editor until 1988 and publisher until 1991. The next year, the paper collapsed after a joint operating agreement with the Tulsa World broke down and it was decided that the Tribune could no longer operate profitably. In addition to writing a column that was syndicated in about one hundred newspapers nationwide, Jones was the author of The Inexact Science of Truth-telling (1958) and The Changing World: An Editor's Outlook (1964). He was named to the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame in 1972.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 127: American Newspaper Publishers, 1950-1990, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1993.

PERIODICALS

Washington Post, February 26, 2004, p. B6.

Wisconsin State Journal, February 25, 2004, p. B3.