James Mark "Jim" Jones

People come and go, and our time on earth is borrowed from a being greater than all of us. We do not have a say on when, how, or why we go because individual time frames have been selected for us that we cannot comprehend.
Regardless of the circumstances, we are bound to leave a mark in other people’s worlds and despite the little time we get together, what matters most is how one makes all those years, months, and days count. We usually find out that impact when we lose someone.
And so it is with James Mark (“Jim”) Jones who was the favorite only child born to Alpha and George “Kidd” Jones in Globe, Arizona on May 23, 1932. He grew up on the Hicks Ranch, a spread that was measured in square miles, not acres and thousands of head of cattle were ranged there. Jim grew to be a man punching cattle, branding, mending fences, roping, bucking hay, and harvesting some of the meat for the dinner table. He learned his craft from some of the toughest, no-nonsense wranglers in the region and grew to love shooting, the outdoors, camping, and hunting.
Jim was a veteran. He entered the Air Force on April 18, 1951 in Phoenix, Arizona and, after learning many new skills, was subsequently honorably discharged at Camp Kilmer in New Jersey on April 8, 1955. As was his father before him, Jim was a member of the Elks Lodge in Globe for several decades.
On June 9, 1956, Jim married the love of his life, Dorothy (“Dottie”) Anne Green at the First Baptist Church in Globe, Arizona. They met in Globe as the focus of a heavenly match-making effort by “Aunt” Doris Bacon well before the creation of E-harmony and have spent the past 62 years together. He was quite a dancer and Dottie says he danced his way into her heart.
Jim loved to travel, and with Dottie and other family members, he cruised Cartagena and Nassau, traveled to Australia, and trekked around the United States. On another excursion, they joined a caravan of hardy, intrepid travelers through Canada to Alaska, but most of their travels were more regional and led them into Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona where they sat astride their trusty ATVs.
Jim was a big fan of sports and for several years went to Phoenix to watch the Rockies in Spring Training. He loved the Broncos and while never a season ticket holder, he held the team in his heart, rarely missing a game. Very often he could be heard very quietly coaching and managing these teams from his living room recliner.

While he was an avid fan of the professional Denver teams, his greatest interest was in the efforts of his children and grandchildren. Through rain, wind, sleet, and freezing cold, he and Dottie would wrap in blankets, hide in rain ponchos, heavy jackets, and beneath umbrellas they followed the kids: Neil and Leigh Anne, and the grandkids: Ty, Nathan, and Ian through school soccer, basketball, track, football, boy scouts, and marching band events. He was very involved in 4H with his children, Neil and Leigh Anne, and followed his grandsons Ty and Nathan as they raised pigs, sheep and built rockets.
Jim’s passion for his family was paramount, and he supported them through the best and the worst of times.
Jim was a Renaissance man in terms of his abilities to fix darn near everything mechanical. He had many talents and skills that were learned on the ranch and during his time in the military. He was a mill wright, a welder, a concrete mixer truck driver for many years, and a mechanic. If he couldn’t fix it then no one could.
Jim was a philosopher of sorts, and a few of his favorite sayings include:
“Are you going to talk to your plate?” which related to praying before a meal;
“It will feel all better once it stops hurtin’”;
“I had a blister on my lip bigger than that [sore] and never stopped whistling;”
“You could tear up an anvil with a toothbrush;”
“I didn’t just fall of the turnip truck” which was sometimes followed by “Maybe I did;”
“I wasn’t born yesterday” which was sometimes followed by “Maybe I was;”
AND there are a multitude of “Jimisms” that cannot be repeated in this pleasurable company.
Jim held duty, reliability, and decency, in high esteem and practiced them every day he was on this earth. As we gather here to remember and commemorate his life, let’s bid him farewell as we mourn the loss of an American son, father, husband, and grandpa.
As he said when informed that one of his great grandsons, Watson, had gone to heaven, “God is taking good care of him”.
Well, God is taking good care of Jim.

Surviving Jim are his loving wife of 62 years, Dorothy Anne (Green) Jones of Dolores; his children, Neil Jones (Terri) of Cortez and Leigh Anne Reinhart (Jeff) of Moab, Utah; his grandchildren, Ty Jones (Brittney) of Gillette, Wyo., Nathan Reinhart (Josee Donaldson) of Ogden, Utah, and Ian Reinhart (Heather) of Moab, Utah; by three great-grandchildren, Daisy Mae Reinhart, Lynn Lee Reinhart, Brantley James Reinhart, and one on the way; and by his cousins, Roy and Marilyn Hicks of Globe, Ariz. and Gary and Stacy Merrifield of Cortez. Jim was preceded in death by his parents; and by his great-grandson, Watson Jeffrey Floyd Reinhart.