2024.09.24 THROW BACK THURSDAY - IN MEMORY OF HARRY JONES PLUS CLASS NEWS
THROW BACK THURSDAY - IN MEMORY OF HARRY JONES PLUS CLASS NEWS
As many of you know, Harry and his older brother, Billy Gene ('53), were thrilled when they entered the Methodist Children's Home,
the first real home with plenty of food and safety that they had ever known. We lost Harry Tuesday night. He was a wonderful guy.
What he made of his life - ALL ON HIS OWN - is amazing. He even managed to himself accepted at Arkansas Tech by joining the
ROTC and in two years earning his Associates Degree. One story that will make all of you laugh out loud. As most of you know,
Harry was blind in his left eye. To get into ROTC you had to take an eye test. The examiner told him to hold a card over one eye
and read the prompter. Harry did as told, holding the card over his eye blind eye. Then the examiner said "now hold the card over
your other eye and read". Harry took the card down from his blind eye, shifted the card around in his fingers for a second and then
placed it over his left eye again. GUESS WHAT? HE PASSED THE TEST!!! Harry was a clever one. He tried that on the Navy,
but they caught on. As fortune would have it, he was lucky enough to meet a wonderful girl, Kitty, originally from Eudora, AR, and
of this just this last August 7, they had spent the next 59 years as a happily married couple. But let's go back to the beginning.
Both Harry and his brother had been living with their grandparents. However, there was never enough to eat. When Harry first
arrived at the Methodist Children's Home in Oak Forest, he said he walked into their kitchen and saw more food than he had EVER
seen in his entire life and he decided right then, "this place is going to be OK". I understand that his brother, Billy Gene, has said
many times that the luckiest day of his life was when CPS came to take them to the Methodist Children's Home. Harry wrote a
story for me that I am still looking for, so in the meantime, here's a little history about the Home. You will be surprised I think about
how many ties there are to relatives of our classmates.
The Methodist Children's Home in Little Rock
The Methodist Children’s Home, located in Little Rock, began as a movement to create an orphanage in the denomination’s Little Rock Conference in 1897. The institution was incorporated on May 3, 1899, in Pulaski County and was called the Arkansas Methodist Orphanage of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The trustees were Colonel George Thornburgh, Dr. James Thomas, Reverend J. A. Cason, and George Culberhouse. Soon afterward, the stockholders of the Women’s Industrial Home at Fifteenth and Commerce Streets offered their property, consisting of three lots and a two-story building, to the orphanage incorporators. Mrs. L. R. Tabor and Mrs. Logan H. Roots were the property’s largest stockholders. Orphanage officials accepted the property, and the home began receiving children. The first orphan accepted was Jessie Miller of McCrory (Woodruff County). In 1907, the denomination’s three annual conferences in Arkansas assumed the home’s financial obligations. In 1908, Thornburgh, chairman of the trustees, was instrumental in raising the money for a new orphanage at Sixteenth and Elm Streets. By July 1910, the building was ready for occupancy and Thornburgh served as its administrator, without pay, until his death in 1922. He was succeeded by Dr. James Thomas, who served until resigning just before his death in 1943.
The orphanage was well supported during these years. Dr. William A. Snodgrass [Grandfather of Phillip Snodgrass] served as the house physician without pay, and Judge Thomas M. Mehaffy [Kathryn's grandfather?] donated his services as the home’s attorney. The children attended Highland Methodist Church and Lee Elementary School. During the Depression in the 1930s, the women of the churches were dedicated to supporting the children’s needs, likely with clothing, entertainment, and other needs. After Thomas died, Methodist layman J. S. M. Cannon was elected superintendent. In 1945, Cannon told the board he had found eighty-four acres on the edge of Little Rock that could be purchased for $10,000. He thought this would provide a beautiful location for the orphanage. In 1947, through funds secured by personal solicitation and the annual Christmas offering, the building was completed and the children were moved. By official action, the new articles of incorporation gave the home a new name: the Methodist Children’s Home. Reverend T. T. McNeal succeeded Cannon in 1952, facing the task of caring for a greatly enlarged physical plant and the attendant increase in enrollment. In the four years of his administration, McNeal supervised the erection of two more buildings on the site. On September 6, 1955, the home entered seventy-one children in the Little Rock public schools: forty-three in elementary schools, eighteen in the junior high schools, and ten in Little Rock Central High School.
Reverend Connor Morehead became superintendent in 1955. During his tenure, a new chapel and a seventh cottage were erected. Succeeding Morehead was Reverend J. Edwin Keith in 1962 [Edwina Keith's father]; he continued until he died in 1977. Keith established satellite children’s homes at Magnolia, Searcy, Ft. Smith and Marked Tree. Under his leadership, a Child Development Center was established; it sought to meet the needs of children who were deserted, neglected, or abused. In 1973, Keith guided the formation of a secure endowment of $1.5 million for the home through the sale of fifty-six acres of the home’s property to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) [formerly Little Rock Junior College].
There are six residential group homes in the state: in Magnolia, Batesville, Fayetteville, Springdale, Lexa and Searcy.
The Methodist Children’s Home has been serving families and children for more than 100 years. Initially created as an orphanage, now a part of Methodist Family Health, the home has expanded its services to provide children and families with a continuum of care—an emergency shelter, therapeutic foster care, therapeutic pre-school day treatment, residential homes, psychiatric residential treatment centers, a counseling clinic, and the Methodist Behavioral Hospital.
I'll always remember Harry's laugh. I will so miss hearing it!
HARRY'S FUNERAL WILL BE HELD NEXT MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2024
3:30PM VISITATION AT 2:30PM
LAKEWOOD METHODIST CHURCH
1922 TOPF ROAD, NORTH LITTLE ROCK
CORNER OF FAIRWAY AVENUE AND TOPF ROAD
FROM LR VIA I-30: TAKE NORTH HILLS BLVD EXIT
LEFT ONTO FAIRWAY AVENUE
RIGHT AT TOPF ROAD
ML