Jones, Jo Fraser 1935-
(Jo Carole Maud Jones)

PERSONAL:

Born April 26, 1935, in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England; citizen of Canada; daughter of William Albert (a tool designer and maker) and Lilian Maud Fraser; married David Gilbert Jones (an air force officer), August 12, 1962; children: Adam Jason, Craig Elton. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Attended University of Grenoble, 1955, and University of Perugia, 1956; University of London, B.A. (hons.), 1957; University of Ottawa, B.Ed., 1971; also attended University of Washington, Seattle, 1974. Hobbies and other interests: Walking, weight training, cycling, theater, music, local history, reading, hand-crafts of all kinds, calligraphy, small-scale desktop publishing, world travel.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Vernon, British Columbia, Canada. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Pan American World Airways, stewardess based in New York, NY, then in San Francisco, CA, between 1958 and 1960; high school French teacher in Southend-on-Sea, England, 1961-62; high school teacher and librarian in Vernon, British Columbia, Canada, 1971-85; INK ink. (calligraphy company), Vernon, proprietor, 1985-89; Beairsto Elementary French Immersion School, Vernon, teacher and librarian, 1989-95; writer, 1995—. Theatrical director and stage actress; Powerhouse Theater, life member, artistic director, and workshop leader; Shaw Cable Television, former host of weekly television program Vernon Review. Aura Chamber Choir, soloist; Greater Vernon Museum and Archives, computer transcriber of old documents; formerly affiliated with Okanagan Symphony Choir, Okanagan Regional Library, Okanagan University College, Vancouver Children's Festival in Vernon, Vernon Women in Business, Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce, and Pet-a-Pup Dog Therapy Program. Okanagan-Shuswap Federal Liberal Riding Association, member. Conference participant.

MEMBER:

Canadian University Women's Club (Vernon chapter), Vernon Friends of History.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Theater B.C. Drama Festival, award for best voice performance, 1977, for Mary Stuart, and award for best director, 1987, for The Dining Room.

WRITINGS:

(Editor and commentator) Hobnobbing with a Countess and Other Okanagan Adventures: The Diaries of Alice Barrett Parke, 1891-1900, University of British Columbia Press (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 2001.

Contributor to books, including Framing Our Past: Canadian Women's History in the Twentieth Century, McGill-Queen's University Press (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 2001. Contributor to periodicals, including Okanagan History and Falkland Islands Journal.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jo Fraser Jones told CA: "My primary motivation for writing is to lay before the public the works of hitherto unknown or unappreciated pioneer writers. Such was the case with Alice Barrett Parke. I began by transcribing a set of musty old diaries, and by the middle of the second volume I was convinced that here was a writer of tremendous talent who deserved a national—indeed international—audience. So I set about completing the transcription (nearly half a million words), making footnotes as I went along, and gradually the shape and content of the book developed and matured.

"I have always loved writing, ever since I was a young child. I wrote my first 'will' when I was nine years old. My education in England was rigorous, and my knowledge of several languages (including Latin and Greek) was a tremendous help in the development of my writing style. Jane Austen's sparkling, crisp, and spare prose has been a bright literary beacon throughout my life. Other major influences have been Cicero, Voltaire, Dorothy Parker, and Dante Alighieri.

"I subscribe to a comment made by René Descartes to a friend: I didn't have time to make it any shorter. That epitomizes my style. In the initial phases of writing, I put down everything that I think might be interesting or useful or arresting. Then begins the editing process, which gives me both the greatest challenge and greatest pleasure—when superfluous 'flab' is cut, the unnecessary removed, and the final polished piece revealed.

"My inspiration for writing has been the unacknowledged immigrant men and women who peopled the Okanagan Valley at a crucial period in its settlement—the years straddling the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the twentieth century. History is most often the story of famous men and women writ large—of battles fought, political lives lived, kingdoms ruled—the story of their greatness. However, there are myriad stories of unknown pioneers without whom such greatness could never have been achieved. An investigation into the character and psychological motivations of such pioneers is fascinating, and there are a thousand tales yet to be told."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Canadian Historical Review, March, 2003, Robert A.J. McDonald, review of Hobnobbing with a Countess and Other Okanagan Adventures: The Diaries of Alice Barrett Parke, 1891-1900, p. 117.

Oregon Historical Quarterly, summer 2002, Jana Harris, review of Hobnobbing with a Countess and Other Okanagan Adventures, p. 285.

Pacific Northwest Quarterly, winter, 2002, Brenda K. Jackson, review of Hobnobbing with a Countess and Other Okanagan Adventures, p. 50.

University of Toronto Quarterly, winter, 2003, review of Hobnobbing with a Countess and Other Okanagan Adventures, pp. 258-259.