Ted Jones Reflects on Experiences, Friendships, and Community As He Prepares to Ride as Grand Marshal in the 2015 Orchard Days Parade

Orchard Days Grand Marshal 2015, Ted Jones stands at the Veterans Monument in the Santaquin Cemetery that he and friends with American Legion Post 84 were instrumental in creating. 

Ted Jones and his wife, Donetta “Donna,” were Santaquin newcomers twenty-nine years ago when they moved into their home on the northeast side of town.  While they were Utah natives, the couple and their children were nomadic travelers of sorts, relocating in a new town in a different state as Ted’s work with the Army Civil Service would require.

At the end of their travels, they decided to settle down in retirement in some small, nice Utah town.  Santaquin answered the call.

Community involvement began with a simple invitation by Post 84 Commander Clement “Jake” Kester for Ted to join Santaquin’s American Legion.  “I said ‘yes’ and signed a transfer form to drop my Post 8 membership and join Post 84,” Ted told The Payson Chronicle. “I quickly became acquainted with all the members of the unit, active in the functions, and ultimately was talked into taking over the command of the post.”

Jake had served as the commander for some time and had decided it was time to step aside and let someone else take the helm, according to Ted.  Having already been a Legionnaire prior to moving to Santaquin, he had the experience to lead.

“I asked Myron [Olson] to stay on as the recorder and adjutant,” he explained, “and Jim Peterson as vice-commander.  They both accepted and did a magnificent job.”  By the time the new Commander of the Santaquin Legion invited Myron and Jim to join him and assume command of Post 84, they had already become great friends.

“My first real close friend in Santaquin was brother Myron Olson,” Ted said. “He and I got along extremely well. I was adept at doing minor mechanical work and when he would ask me to help with his farm equipment, I would go and help him. Myron was impressed.  He told me his tractor had not started and run so good in years.”

The two friends shared a love of the outdoors and an appreciation of one sport in particular. “He and I used to go fishing together,” Ted said.  Scofield Reservoir was their favorite destination.

When Myron, due to age, could no longer drive a vehicle to tow his boat, Ted volunteered his truck and himself as driver to get them there. And when they did get there, Ted and Myron were nearly always guaranteed to catch their limit.

This despite a precarious moment or two on the water.

“One time we went fishing and Myron forgot to put the plug in the hull,” Ted said.  “We got about a mile from shore and the water was under the motor, inside the hull, and the stern was starting to sink.”

Thanks to some quick thinking,  Myron turned on the sump pump and heaved to a nearby shore.  He reached in for the plug, which was lying on the the boat’s floor, and the two were soon able to save their sinking ship.  “We got the water out and returned to fishing,” Ted laughed.  “We had a great day, in spite of the scare. The fish didn’t seem to care. We caught a bunch!”

Ted’s friendship with Jim Peterson, who passed away in December of 2011, also came with its own fishing tales to pass down. He met Jim through the American Legion and they, too, became fast friends, spending memorable days in Jim’s boat fishing at Strawberry Reservoir as well as Scofield.  

Fishing with his Santaquin friends at Scofield, for Ted, meant returning to his roots.  His dad, John T. Jones was born in the mining community in 1887.  Ted’s grandfather, who was also named John T. Jones, would die there tragically among the estimated two hundred men who were killed in the Scofield Mine Disaster on May 1, 1900.  Though only thirteen years old at the time, Ted’s father also worked in the mine, loading a mule to pull the loaded coal cars out of the mine.  He was there, May 1, but outside, dumping the coal car when the dust explosion killed his father and fellow miners.  He and surviving family members left Scofield after the disaster to try their luck at farming in Pocatello, Idaho.  They soon returned to Utah.

The Great Depression, too, would prove difficult for the Joneses, as it had for most everyone during the period of high unemployment and despair.  Ted, his siblings, and their dad and mom, (Edna Underwood, a Salem, Utah, native), spent two years of it living in a tent in the Spanish Fork canyon now well known as Skyline Drive, after his dad lost his job with D&RG Railroad.  He earned some money doing odd jobs in the canyon whenever they were available.

Ted made the best of the experience.  In fact, he enjoyed their outdoor accommodations.  He and his brother, Marion, were often off exploring the hills too long for mom and caused her much angst.

When the New Deal arrived to Utah it brought with it steady work for his dad.  He was hired on to help with the construction of the Springville Museum of Art, one of many Works Progress Association (WPA) projects that gave employment to Americans. Today, Ted marvels over his dad’s handiwork in the construction of the Spanish Colonial Revival style building.  He can recall watching it as it occurred as a child, taking sack lunches to his father as the carpenter was able to make good use of his trade and provide for his family.

In 1943, his dad was hit by a car as he was biking to catch his ride to a Geneva Steel construction job.  He never worked steady after that, due to his injuries.  The identity of the driver was never found.

As for Ted, he would find his career path at seventeen with the military, work that would eventually bring him to his close friends and community in Santaquin.

“I enlisted in and was sworn into the Army on the 29th of December, 1947,” according to Ted.  “I served a year on Guam and just over a year in the Korean War, arriving in Korea on the 14th of July, 1950.  After thirteen months of combat, I had earned enough points to be rotated back to the States.”

While his involvement in combat ended, his service continued. This provided him with the opportunity to develop skills and open his mind through new experiences.

“I was discharged on the 17th of January, 1952,” Ted explained.  “In August, 1952, I was hired at the Ogden Arsenal as a telephone technician, a department of the Army Civil Service position.”

Over the years, Ted took any and all extension courses that he needed to achieve a college level and was “educated and promoted in the Civil Service and assigned to the U.S. Army Material Command HO’s in Alexandria, Virginia,” he explained.  “A position of Director of Communication, Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah, was offered to me and in 1979 I moved back to Utah.  After two years, I was offered a promotion at the Combined General and Chief of Staff College as the Director of Communications in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, which I accepted.  After thirty-six years of civil service and many, many High Performance awards, I retired on the 31st of December, 1984.”

Ted and Donna Jones were married on December 17, 1954.  “We had five children,” he noted, “four girls, one boy, who grew up in Utah, California, New Mexico, Maryland, and Kansas.”  Their children are Teresa Beavers, Brenda Jordan, Tina Zedekar, the late Ted Jones II, and Joy Webber. Sixteen grandchildren and five great-grandchildren can be counted today.

Donna passed away in 2006.  Ted II died of kidney failure in 2008.  “He was a border patrol supervisor in Scobey, Montana,” said Ted.  “He had to quit his job due to health issues, just about ten months before he passed away.  His son, Ted II lives in Vernal, Utah, where his mom went (home) after his dad’s death.”

Ted’s daughter, Teresa, a security guard, was shot three times at a college in Massachusetts by an angry student, who killed three and injured others on the campus before being captured.  Teresa survives today after twelve surgeries, Ted noted.  She and her husband, Bruce, both in “less than good” health, are still very active in church callings and family matters.

Thirty-six years of civil service, four in the Army, nearly fulfilled, Ted and his wife returned to Utah, a state that never left his mind.  “The Tooele Army Depot Chemical Disposal Site, a location I visited several times on official Army business before retiring, offered me a position on their contractor-provided communications, so I went to work as a contract employee from 1985 until 1994,” he said.

Once he was officially retired from military and civil service, he set his eyes on his next project:  A veterans monument that could stand the test of time.

His vision arose after visiting the Salem Cemetery Veterans Monument. When it was dedicated, he saw that his dad, two uncles, and several cousins had been honored on the monument wall.  Ted was then determined to see to it that Santaquin would one of its own.

“When I decided Santaquin needed to build a monument, I talked to Post 84 members,” he said.  “They were enthused by the suggestion.”

But perhaps more than anyone else, Jim Peterson seemed especially excited. “So I visited Jim at his home and talked to him and [his wife] Neva about it,” said Ted.  “I asked them to become my fundraising committee and they leaped at the chance to work on it, and proved to be extremely effective in both fundraising and getting volunteer labor and materials.”

From there, the project took off until its completion and dedication in 2004.

The Veterans Monument in Santaquin is impressive.  Bronze statues of service men and one service woman represent the five military services. Striking walls memorialize Santaquin’s veterans past, behind flags towering high upon three poles and an inspiring stone marker.  The Veterans Monument stands in the center of Santaquin Cemetery, at the divide between its older section and a vast new space on the west side.  It invites all to pause, step in, and remember their service, “Lest We Forget,” as the marker at its entrance implores.  On special occasions the flags of the five armed services are flown on the rail fences that embrace the monument’s western perimeter

This week and next, Ted’s service is remembered and reflected upon, as he holds the honorable post of Santaquin City’s annual celebration. Next Saturday, August 1, Ted will ride in the Orchard Days Grand Parade as Grand Marshal of the celebration, a day in the spotlight for a lifetime of service that will benefit the community for years to come.

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