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Everett R. Jones Jr., Dallas oilman, decorated WW II veteran, dies at 95

By JOE SIMNACHER Staff Writer
jsimnacher@dallasnews.com
Published: 07 November 2013 11:14 PM
Updated: 07 November 2013 11:14 PM


Everett Riley Jones Jr. shaped a sense of duty, honor and service during World War II that he used to become a successful Dallas oilman.

In 1999, he was able to fulfill an obligation he had felt for 55 years: to identify and honor a fighter pilot who had saved Jones and his B-24 Liberator over Germany in November 1944.

Jones, 95, died Monday of natural causes at Baylor University Medical Center.

A memorial will be at 2 p.m. Friday at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation in Dallas.

Jones placed a premium on being an independent oilman.

“Dad never wanted to be beholden to anyone,” said his daughter Stacey Jones Angel of Dallas. “He quietly did his own thing and lived his life in respect of what he learned in the war, and that was to always take care of yourself.”

Jones was a Dallas oilman for nearly 65 years and had worked until just days before he died.

“He used those same values he’d learned in the military,” said his daughter Rande Jones Ross of Fort Worth. “His second mission in life was to form a family oil business.”

Jones was born in Leitchfield, Ky., and attended Spencerian College in Louisville, Ky.

In 1942, he enlisted in the Army Air Forces, where he became a B-24 Liberator pilot with the 8{+t}{+h} Air Force’s 466th Bomb Group.

He flew 34 combat missions over Europe — including two in support of D-Day — and received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters. Jones also flew numerous noncombat missions, including one transporting big band leader Glenn Miller.

A mystery from one sortie stayed with Jones: Who had saved him and his B-24 crew from being shot down on Nov. 1, 1944?

At the time, Jones’ bomber was flying low and alone, with one of its four engines dead. An American P-51 appeared and flew in support of the wounded bomber. Suddenly, Jones spotted a jet-powered German Messerschmitt closing in on the Americans. The Me 262 shot down the P-51 and vanished.

Fifty-five years later, a model airplane magazine photo of sleek WW II German fighter rekindled Jones’ ongoing quest to identify the P-51 pilot. He actively searched for the pilot’s identity. With the help of military historians, he discovered the pilot was 2{+n}{+d} Lt. Denis Alison.

Stationed in England, Jones resumed his education, studying briefly at Oxford University, while he awaited orders to go to the Pacific. When the war ended before he was transferred, he returned to Kentucky, where he earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Louisville.

He started his career at a Louisville oil company, where was he secretary-treasurer and a director. Jones started learning the oil business on a Louisiana assignment for the Kentucky company. He also discovered he wanted his own company.

On St. Patrick’s Day 1949, Jones arrived in Dallas, where a family friend introduced him to legendary oilman H.L. Hunt.

When Jones explained he wanted to eventually own a company, Hunt referred him to R.J. Fryer, Angel said.

Jones learned the Texas oil business working for Fryer.

“Dad took the gamble and within very few years … Mr. Fryer loaned him money to buy the company,” Angel said. “Dad went on from there.”

Jones operated his company for many years as Bengal Producing Co. He later went into the minerals and royalties business, which he operated as Everett R. Jones Oil and Gas Properties.

He was a past president of the Dallas Engineers Club and the Dallas Petroleum Club as well as a director of the Dallas County Small Business Center Inc. and a trustee of the Southwest Engineering Foundation.

He was a member of the Royal Air Force Club in London, the Northwood Club, the Park City Club and the Dallas Museum of Art.

In addition to his two daughters, Jones is survived by two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Memorials may be made to the Happy Hill Farm Children’s Home, 3846 N. Highway 144, Granbury, Texas 76048.

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