Barry William Jones

It is my great honor to tell the story of the life and death of my husband. The angels came for Barry in the very early hours of April 15, after his courageous eight-month battle with liver cancer. He endured this illness with grace and dignity and always graciously thanked every doctor, nurse, and aide who attended him. I told him often how proud I was of his courage. But it never surprised me, because that was who Barry was.

He was born in Austell, Georgia, on June 17, 1944, to the late Oscar Coy and Mary Virginia (Sanders) Jones. He graduated from South Cobb High School in 1962, where he played center for the football team; ran the 440; and was the sports editor of the yearbook. 

Barry always said that the biggest influence on his early life was his paternal grandmother, Emma Jones. As children, he and his brother Stanley would sit at her feet as she read Bible stories and sang old hymns. After graduation, he decided to study for the ministry and attended Truett McConnell College in Cleveland, GA 

After two years, he transferred to Baylor University, and decided the ministry wasn’t for him. Instead, he fell in love with journalism, which steered his future. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and History in 1966. His first jobs as a journalist included copy editor of The Dallas Morning News; sports writer for the Atlanta (GA) Times; religious news writer for The Christian Index; copy editor for the Waco Tribune-Herald; and city editor for The Daily News, Athens, GA.

In 1971, he made a career move toward agricultural communications. His first job was extension editor for Rural Development with UGA’s Cooperative Service in Tifton, GA. In 1976, he became a communications specialist for Texas A&M in Uvalde. Here he developed a life-long love of Texas, especially the Hill Country. This same year he earned a Master of Arts in Journalism at UGA.

In 1980, he moved his family to Mississippi State University and served as managing editor for the News and Information Department for the Mississippi Cooperative Extension Service. While at Mississippi he took a sabbatical and worked on a PhD in Mass Communication in Athens, OH (where we first met), finishing his degree in 1994. When he left Mississippi, he moved west, and  headed the Department of Agricultural Communications at Texas A&M in College Station. Following his retirement from Texas A&M, he became a consulting communicator for UGA, Louisiana College, and the University of Florida. In 1997, he came out of retirement and moved back to Athens to direct the Education, Communication, and Technology unit for UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Following this second retirement, Barry served as an adjunct professor for UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. 

Barry was a nationally and internationally renowned communication specialist. Among his many awards, he received the ACE Professional Award presented at the International Conference of Agricultural Communicators (ACE) in Toronto, Canada in 2001. The award was for lifetime achievement in agricultural communications. In 1999, he received an award for Excellence in Communications Management presented at the International Conference of Agricultural Communicators in Education in Knoxville, TN. In 1993, Barry received the Texas Agricultural Extension Service Superior Service award for visionary leadership for his work at Texas A&M.

Barry proudly served in the U.S. Marine Corp/Reservist from 1966-1980, rising to the rank of Warrant Officer.

He was a former member of the Athens Marine Corp League and Kiwanis Club of Athens. Barry was a life-long Baptist and a champion of Baptist principles. For 26 years, he was a member of Milledge Avenue Baptist Church (MABC) where he taught Sunday school, served as a Deacon and Deacon Chair, and worked on various committees.

Barry loved his children deeply— his son, Brent (Andrea) Jones of Rome, GA; his son, Cody (Jen Biddle) Jones of Austin, TX; and his stepdaughter, Jenny Morrison of Flatwoods, KY. They were wonderful children who grew up to be wonderful adults.

From the day they were born, “Poppy” fell in love with his grandchildren, Henry Jones of Austin, TX; Anne Elyse Jones of Rome, GA; Logan Morrison of Colorado Springs, CO; Laine (Michael Antrobus) Morrison of Butler, KY; Lilly Morrison of Lexington, KY; Liam Morrison of Flatwoods, KY; and Eva Biddle of Austin, TX. He always encouraged them to find their passion and work hard to achieve it, but mostly he wanted them to be kind and generous people. Last month, he was able to meet his great-granddaughter, Aurora June Antrobus, for the first time, and in no time, Junie Bug loved Poppy too.

Barry’s sibling rivalry with his younger brother Stanley (Diane) Jones continued into adulthood, but throughout their lives they have always loved and respected each other. 

Barry was an avid gardener. He could make anything grow, including beautiful blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and grapes. When the deer decided our yard was their paradise, he had an eight-foot fence built around our backyard, and soon we had great produce again.

He was a prolific writer. For years he wrote a weekly devotional he called “Sealed Orders.” One friend said it was Barry’s “homespun gospel.” It was far-reaching and brought him great joy to share it with others. He was a ferocious reader, and he loved meeting good storytellers and sharing his own.

We will celebrate Barry’s life on Saturday, April 27, at Milledge Avenue Baptist Church, in Athens, GA. Visitation will begin at 10:00 in the Gathering Room, and the service will start at 11:00 in the Sanctuary. The service will be live-streamed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-B-2CF4bcFNS23ZhCt91qA. Serving as honorary pallbearers will be the Spaghetti Guys (Bob Duncan, Charlie Clegg, Graham Selick, Bill Boswell, Ray Neal, Doug Gatchell, Sherry Lester, Bruce Ferguson, Tom Rodgers, John Allen, Gary Moore, Bill Berry, and Carroll Humphries), an MABC mission group Barry was a member of until his health failed. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in Barry’s memory to MABC’s Building Fund, P.O. Box 885, Athens, GA, 30601.

Barry and I were married under an old oak tree in Montell, TX, on July 4, 1998. It was a second marriage for both of us, and we often said it was our salvation. We traveled all over the country and abroad together. Barry never met a stranger, and if you befriended him, you were his friend for life. My brother, Mike Watson, and one of Barry’s best friends, wrote: “. . .You traveled with me to places I never would have seen, introduced me to wonderful people I never would have met, and shared the hospitality of your life. And it was all with your tremendous sense of humor and your enormous breadth of experience. . .” Barry brought the most interesting and eclectic people into my life too, (especially Murray Dennis), from all across the country.

You were my best friend and soul mate, and I will miss you every day for the rest of my life. I hope when the angels came that they flew over Texas so that you could see the Hill Country one more time. Rest well, Baby. We’ll be together again one day. Love, Betty