Obituaries

Robert C. Jones Jr., Former Ballwin Mayor, Dies at 78

The former mayor and municipal court judge served the city from 1963 to 1971.

Robert C. Jones, Jr., who served the City of Ballwin as Mayor from 1965 to 1971, died Saturday. He was 78 years old.

Jones' career included working for four different law firms and multiple municipalities over a five-decade span.

Before pursuing law, however, which helped Jones establish a positive reputation locally, his skills on the baseball diamond once presented a vastly different career path.

Find out what's happening in Ballwin-Ellisvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jones had graduated from Brentwood High School in 1951, then pitched and played infield for local teams in the 1950s, including those under the Ballwin Athletic Association. That led to an offer to play minor league baseball in Detroit—an offer that ultimately was turned down in favor of a law degree from Washington University, where Jones graduated from in 1957.

Jones later served as the Ballwin Athletic Association's legal counsel and was elected to its hall of fame in 2003, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Find out what's happening in Ballwin-Ellisvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Immediately after graduating law school, Jones was assigned to work as city attorney for Sunset Hills, according to a 2007 article in the South County Times.

At the age of 24, Jones said he was wary of others trying to take advantage of their less experienced peer.

"I was only 24, but I looked like I was 12," Jones said in the article. "They thought I was wet behind the ears and they tried to tell me what to do. I wasn't going to back down. It worked out. I just tried to do my job the best I could."

Jones' perseverance resulted in several triumphs, including successfully defending challenges to a city-imposed gasoline tax—an issue that reached the Supreme Court before the justices sided with the city, the Times reported.

About six years after starting work in Sunset Hills, Jones became a municipal court judge for the City of Ballwin. Two years later, he was elected Mayor of Ballwin—a position he held from 1965 to 1971. During Jones' tenure, a new city hall was built, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

At the time of his death, Jones still was Sunset Hills' active city attorney, in addition to working under the firm Curtis, Heinz, Garrett & O'Keefe, where Jones' son and City of Ballwin attorney Robert E. Jones also works.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jones' death followed a diagnosis of liver cancer given about four years ago. Throughout the course of his career, Jones worked with hundreds of aldermen and attended thousands of planning and zoning and aldermanic meetings.

"Bob’s steady hand on the rudder of this once tiny 'ship of state' guided its every course through its growth and development,” Sunset Hills Mayor William J. Nolan, Jr. said in an official statement. "May God have sympathy on the soul of Bob Jones and may he help guide us as we move forward without him."

Nolan said that Jones, who was a resident of Crestwood, made contributions to Sunset Hills that were immeasurable. With Jones' own wisdom and knowledge about city history, he is a person who will be "forever missed," Nolan said.

“On behalf of all the citizens of Sunset Hills and its staff and employees, may we express our sincerest sympathy to his wife Susan, all his family, and especially his son Bob, who serves as our city prosecutor,” Nolan said of Robert E. Jones, who also works as the city attorney for Ballwin. “We share in your loss more than you will ever know.”

According to the Bopp Chapel website, Jones was married to Susan Jones (nee Simmons). He is survived by children Robert E. Jones, Thomas C. Jones, Jonathan P. Jones, Ariel S. Simmons and Kris S. Simmons, and grandchildren Robby and Daniel Jones, Ellie and Henry Jones, Aveline Huey and Emily Simmons.

A funeral service will be at noon Thursday at Bopp Chapel, 10610 Manchester Rd. in Kirkwood. Interment Lakewood Park Cemetery. Visitation will be from 4 to p.m. Wednesday. Memorial contributions preferred to Stray Rescue of St. Louis.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Ballwin-Ellisville