Friday, Jun. 13, 2008
Living to Serve
Mansfield native comes back to work in funeral home
By AMANDA ROGERS
News-Mirror Writer
And he did. But his first job and his hometown called him back.
Last month, Jones, 32, began working as a funeral director and embalmer at Skyvue Funeral Home & Cemetery, likely the first black person to work as a funeral director in Mansfield.
"As a kid, I was known for burying animals," Jones said. "My grandmother said there’s no telling how many are buried in her yard."
Jones soon put his talents to use, starting work with Gregory W. Spencer Funeral Director Inc. in Fort Worth at age 14.
"That’s where I learned service of families," he said.
Serving families is what eventually led him back to his first job, but it took awhile.
After serving as a aviation boatswain mate fueling the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier to ports in Singapore, Dubai, Honolulu, Kenya, Italy, Ireland and Australia, Jones returned to the Metroplex. He worked for Delta Airlines starting as a baggage handler and working his way up to material expediter.
"But there was still something inside calling me back to funeral service," he said.
He enrolled in the 15-month program at the Dallas Institute of Funeral Service to become an embalmer and funeral director. He was the class chaplain and received the Bill Pierce Award for outstanding service, an honor voted on by his class. He graduated in 2005 and worked at different funeral homes in the area.
Before coming back to Mansfield, he was the funeral director in charge for Cedar Crest Memorial Services in Dallas.
But then he got the offer to work with Claud and Daniel Estes at Skyvue.
"I live off Broad Street," he said. "It’s five minutes away. This is home. I don’t want to go anywhere else."
Jones’ roots run deep in the community. His great-grandfather, Charlie Moody Jr., lived in Mansfield in the 1800s. His mother, Paula Jones, was the first black person to work for the Mansfield Post Office, he said.
"She’s still there," he said. "It made me a better person because I saw what she had to endure."
Jones is happy to be home and looking forward to serving his hometown. He has definite opinions about funerals, families and how people should be treated.
"Everyone deserves a dignified funeral," he said. "No one knows everything a person has been through. A funeral should be a celebration. Everyone should come together and put those good pieces together that they remember."
The challenge of his job is helping through a difficult time, he said.
"I’m a spiritual person, so this is my ministry," Jones said. "If I can help do something to help, that’s what I’m there for. You’ll see me crying with the family."
Claud Estes, who co-owns the funeral home and cemetery with his brother, knows Jones brings something to the business.
"Him growing up with family involvement and community awareness brings something to this funeral home," said Estes, who was a classmate at the Dallas Institute of Funeral Service. "He is committed whole-heartedly. A good example is this morning he went and tied together silk roses to give to the family. He feels in his heart that he wants them to know he cares."
There is a good chance that Jones is the first black funeral director in Mansfield, Estes said, but that’s not a big deal for him. His family has owned the cemetery and funeral home for three generations, starting with his grandparents Claud W. Estes Sr. and Victoria Estes.
"My grandparents founded the cemetery desegregated without regard to race or religion," he said. "My grandmother said that when people pass away they should be buried without regard to race or religion."
Co-worker Robert Ortiz, who is Hispanic, makes the funeral home even more interracial, and it helps that he can speak Spanish to the families, Estes said.
Their race didn’t have anything to do with their hiring, though, he said.
"We didn’t hire (Jones) to do black services, we hired him because of his capabilities and dedication to the families he’s serves, whites, blacks, Spanish, Asian," Estes said.
Although Jones knows race still matters to some people, he said it doesn’t to employees at Skyvue.
"We all back each other up," Jones said. "We want to serve people."
Some day he does hope to leave, though, and open the first black-owned funeral home in Mansfield, he said.
Until then, he’s happy to be home with his wife, Charlene, and four children. He attends New Dawn Ministries Outreach Center, where he was the first deacon ordained.
"I moved back in August 2007 after my grandmother died," he said. "I wanted my kids to go to Mansfield (schools). It’s the spirit of the people here. There was a time that everyone knew everyone. It’s not like that anymore, but they still have the spirit.
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Mansfield
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