Keeping up with Mrs. Jones

Good luck keeping up with Helen Catherine McGuire Jones.

Jones, BS HE ’53, entered this world May 1, 1931, the daughter of Samuel Hubert McGuire, Sr., and Hester Elizabeth Oxley McGuire. Little about her beginnings in the sleepy Missouri River hamlet of Hardin, Missouri, would predict how far she would go. The first significant leg of her journey took Jones through Columbia and the University of Missouri.

Destined for college and home economics

After a little more than a year of college in Fayette, Missouri, Jones caught a bus to Columbia to enroll at MU. She went straight to the office of the Dean of the College of Agriculture and reminded him her father was an alum and friend from Ray County. She said, "I told him I wanted to enroll in home economics, and he helped me do that. It was the spring of 1951."

Coming from a home that valued higher education, Jones knew from the time she was seven years old that she would go to college. She said, "I felt like I wanted to go and do something with my life."

Wasting no time after graduating with her bachelor's degree in 1953, Jones packed her bags and moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. With the help of a fellowship arranged through the efforts of MU faculty members Doris Saxon and Helen Allen, Jones got her master's degree from the University of Alabama. A year later, Jones secured an assistant professorship at the University of Miami, teaching home economics. She recalled that three of her girlfriends from Missouri drove to Alabama to help her move to Miami. The quartet piled into a car and headed for Florida and a side-trip to the Florida Keys. Once there, they felt the lure of Havana—just minutes across the waters from Key West—and at the time, still open to Americans. With $20 for a plane ticket and little more to spare, Jones and friends set off on an impromptu Cuban adventure.

To Havana and back

Jones said Havana had an international feel: "People from Europe, the States, and the islands—kind of a party place for all the well-to-do. We just wanted to hop over there and see for ourselves. It was only 90 miles away."

Jones remembered seeing the plight of the poor in Havana. She said, "I could understand why the revolution took place. The difference between the haves and have-nots was so great. I started getting students from Havana almost immediately when I started teaching (in Miami) as they were trying to leave Havana—the ones who could afford to leave."

After a few years teaching in Miami, Jones returned to Missouri in 1964 to help care for her parents. She took a job with garment manufacturer Stevie Togs, Inc., in Lenexa, Kansas, as a designer consultant, which expanded her career perspective. In her new role, Jones traveled to places like New York City to show the line and select fabric and trim for future lines. She also traveled to the company's plants. Fatefully for Jones, the company had a factory in Parsons, Kansas, where Jones met and married Glenn Jones, a local attorney.

Small town life—launch-pad to the world

Moving to Parsons, Jones left Stevie Togs to return to teaching. Open only three years in 1965, Labette Community College in Parsons offered no home economics courses. The president, Mr. Charles Thiebaud, went to Jones’ husband Glenn and asked if Helen would come teach home economics at the college. She said, "Glenn told him I would." Jones explained that her husband preferred she not work—wives were primarily homemakers during that time—but her mother admonished Glenn that he needed to keep her busy. She said, "He did get me that job."

Busy from the start, Jones set up a curriculum for clothing construction, food and nutrition, marriage and family, and interior design. Later she added tailoring and history of foods.

From 1965 to 1980, Jones' career at Labette Community College expanded beyond the classroom. Jones took leave from the college in 1971 to serve as president of Centennial Parsons, Inc., a yearlong celebration commemorating the 100-year history of Parsons as a significant railroad hub for the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad (MKT). When she returned, she led the creation of the Labette Community College Endowment Association—serving 12 years as its executive secretary.

In addition to her involvement through the college, Jones left her mark in the community as a volunteer in roles that started in Parsons and led her around the globe. Jones said mentors encouraged her involvement wherever she went, starting with her mother: "My mother always told me that the more education you have, the more you owe to society. She inspired me always to be of service to my community."

Beginning in the ’70s, Jones' activity with Church Women United (CWU) would span four decades. An ecumenical Christian women's movement working for peace and justice, Jones' involvement took her as a national representative of CWU to Africa for the United Nations Decade for Women in Nairobi, Kenya. Through churches in Parsons, Jones visited China and toured Russia.

In a bittersweet period for Helen, she served as honorary chair of the Glenn Jones Golf Tournament for American Cancer Society from 1985 to 1990. Glenn passed away in 1985. Glenn had a successful law practice and was an active civic leader and counsel and avid golfer. He served in the Kansas State Senate as a democrat beginning in 1941 as the youngest member of the Senate at the time he served.

In 1987 Helen became a licensed realtor and joined the effort to revitalize downtown Parsons. She remodeled a building on Main Street, moved in, and held open houses to show possibilities for bringing life back to the business district. In 1998 Jones incorporated the Parsons Community Development Corporation, which would play a key role in community recovery following a major tornado in 2000.

Jones credited her home economics background for a successful second career in real estate: "It doesn't matter what challenges we face, one can succeed with a background in home economics. Oh, how I would have loved the College of Human Environmental Sciences!"

Legacy with MU

In 2003 Helen made the trip to Columbia for her Gold Medal Reunion, setting foot on campus for the first time in 50 years. Her return visit inspired her to give back to the place she credits for launching her career. She said, "I certainly was inspired, and I am glad to include a legacy gift because the University of Missouri gave me a wonderful foundation for life."

Helen has created a gift through her will to benefit the Missouri Historic Costume and Textile Collection. Established in 1967, the collection supports the teaching mission of the Department of Textile and Apparel Management within the College of Human Environmental Sciences. The Collection gathers and preserves clothing and textiles of historic and artistic value for teaching, research, and exhibition, with examples spanning five centuries to the present. The collection consists of everyday clothing giving a rare and valuable glimpse into daily life across time.