Richard J. Jones passed away on Sunday at his home in Fort Morgan, Colorado where he had been living the past year.  He was 94 years old.  He was born January 30, 1925 at home in Gault, Washington County, Colorado to Charles Earl Jones and Mary Olivia Frazier.  He had four older sisters, Eva, Ida, Myrtle, and Fern, two older brothers, Lonnie and Alvin, and two younger brothers, Charles and Willie.

Richard grew up on a farm and ranch during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl years.  His mom told him he was the fastest, most energetic, and best eater of all her children!  When he was a toddler, he was outside eating a slice of homemade bread with jam on it when it dropped and a chicken took off with it.  Immediately he ran into the house and wanted his sister Fern to run fast and get his snack back!  He was able to walk or run to Crystal Heights, the country school that bordered their farm through eighth grade.  Then he was a full-time farmer and rancher and loved it!  He was a hard worker, quite energetic, and honest.  They were still farming with horses in his early years.  He remembered his dad buying their first tractor and driving it carefully all the way from Akron until the last few miles when his dad must have relaxed too much and somehow got a straddle of a fence.  The next day they fixed fence.  Shortly after, it rained and they wanted to try out the tractor but got it stuck and had to use a team of workhorses to pull it out.  They learned it had to be much drier for tractor farming.  Once Dad diligently trained a horse for his little brother Willie until it was very gentle and safe for him to ride.  Within a week Willie had trained it to rear up like Dad had trained his horse to do!

He was a World War II Army veteran.  He served in the Philippines in the infantry.  His lieutenant would send him to scout out the enemy in the jungle.  He was an expert marksman.  He did enjoy eating ripe bananas right off the tree and playing with monkeys while there.

After the war, he married Evelyn Cross in Longmont, Colorado on February 24, 1948 where his sister Eva lived.  They bought a farm and ranch in the Rago and Elba community where they lived over 70 years.  They raised mostly Hereford cattle, horses, grain crops like wheat, and hay.  He was really good in math.  Often while driving tractor, he would do math problems in his head like how much his wheat would sell for, how much hay he would need for the cattle and horses for the winter, or how many bushels the wheat would produce.

For many years he raised, broke, and trained registered quarter horses and thoroughbreds.  One year he only had five quarter horses at Centennial Race Track in Littleton, Colorado and was on the top owner and trainer lists.  This was against owners and trainers that had so much bigger horse stables!  Breeze By was their best racehorse and set many track records.  She made the top ten running quarter horse mare list in the United States.

Two children, Phillip Richard and Julie Mae, were born to them.  He loved to read stories.  When Julie was a little girl, her favorite story was about Stormy, a little colt.  Every night she would ask him to read it to her and my parents said her lip would come out and she would cry when Dad came to the part where they took Stormy away from his mother to wean him.  Mom told him he shouldn't upset Julie just before bedtime so when he got to that part, he would make up that they always brought Stormy back to his mommy and then she wouldn't cry.  Years later, when Dad gave Julie her first pony, a half quarter horse and Welsh Shetland that he bought from his brother Charles, she named her Stormy!

Richard loved to play games with his children. We did outdoor games like foot races, bicycle races, badminton games, croquet games, and basketball games.  Phil and Mom would always be on one basketball team against Julie and Dad.  Julie and Dad learned to be good sports because they almost always lost unless they both got and made long shots as Phil and Mom had the height and were the better players.  Inside games he played with his kids were card games like rummy, concentration, razzle dazzle, pitch, dart games, and rubber horseshoes.  He enjoyed telling us true stories about his childhood and stories his parents told about their lives in Iowa. He enjoyed making up funny stories.  A favorite was about Evelyn and Georgie, his brother Charles's wife, being bear hunters.  The stories were always entertaining and hilarious as he had a great imagination.  Later as a grandparent, he enjoyed playing with his grandchildren.

When his nephew, Randy Jones, accidentally got ran over with a pickup Dad did the farm chores for Randy's parents until he could leave the hospital.

One time in the 1980's during a bad blizzard Dad and Mom drove in the pickup down to our south farm to feed the cattle and horses.  On finishing the pickup wouldn't start.  Finally they decided they would have to walk home.  The snow was three to four feet deep and the pickup tracks were already almost filled in.  It was about 5 miles and lots of hills.  Mom soon tired out and wanted to quit but Dad would let her rest and then prodded her on until they finally made it back to the house and didn't freeze to death.  Mom always credited Dad with saving her life.  But the next day he rode Phil's Breeze, a big 16 hand half quarter horse and thoroughbred that could easily break through the high frozen drifts and Mom stayed home.

He was preceded in death by his parents, all his siblings, his wife, and his son.  He is survived by his daughter, Julie Jones Johnson, son-in-law Donald Johnson, his three grandchildren, Lori Johnson Hardman, Shari Johnson Hofhiens, and Scott Johnson. He will be missed by his family, five great grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and friends.

A graveside funeral was held at the Cope Cemetery, Cope, Colorado on Friday, December 27, 2019 at 11 am with Bowin Funeral Home handling arrangements.