The Elva S. Jones Scholarship in Teaching

In 2007, The Jones Educational Foundation, Inc. is scheduled to award the first annual Elva Sears Jones Scholarship in Teaching in the amount of $1,000 to a graduating senior who plans to become a teacher. This award is named for the chairperson of The Jones Foundation’s Board of Trustees.

Mrs. Jones began teaching at Sears School when she was 17 following studies at Sue Bennett College in London, Kentucky. Completing her education at Union College when her daughter, Dr. Sonya Jones, was a small child, she continued to serve the Pulaski County and Somerset City school systems for 44 years prior to retiring in 1986 to care for her mother.

When Mr. Jones was away “in the service” during World War II, Mrs. Jones lived with her parents, or boarded with other families who had children at nearby schools, as was the custom in those days. She saved money, so the young couple could set up household when Mr. Jones returned from Germany where he fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Her mother, Dona Farmer Sears, was also a teacher, and Sears School is named for her husband, Allen Sears, who maintained the post office and store at Dykes, Kentucky.

Elva Jones taught at a number of one and two-room schools in Pulaski Co., including the Garner School where she sent her daughter as a five-year-old who could already read and do her math. Bookcases from the Garner School are housed at Jones Foundation offices in Slate Branch. Generations of students to this day claim that Mrs. Jones taught them how to write good sentences by showing them how to diagram the parts of speech. Her career as an educator ranged from teaching senior English at Shopville High School where she advised the cheerleaders, with daughter Sonya as mascot, to many fine years at Central Junior High School in the Somerset system. She retired as a 4 th grade teacher at Parker School and always said that she liked teaching “the little ones” as well as the seniors whose yearbooks and senior trips she advised.

Although she rarely raised her voice, Mrs. Jones was a disciplinarian who would not tolerate disorder in the classroom. It is not unusual to find men three times her size who claim that she whipped them with a paddle for misbehaving in her classroom. Never one to be too stern, however, Mrs. Jones is fond of joking (whether true or not) that she got fired from her first teaching job because she liked to play too much. She could ride virtually any horse she straddled, although she consented to ride behind her older brother Vola Von. Her younger brother Onva C. was precious to her, too, and it is said that he came to her rescue more than once when too many young men wanted to walk her home from pie suppers at Sears School. Mrs. Jones had a mean set shot on the basketball court and could hold her own with anyone who dared to challenge her true-blue devotion to the Kentucky Wildcats. She, herself, was recruited by Sears School Coach Theodore Meece to play on the boy’s team even though she was tiny enough for Mr. Meece to carry across the branch to get to school. The late Mr. Meece, one of her favorite teachers who died in 2006 at age 105, named one of his daughters Elva.

The Elva Sears Jones Scholarship in Teaching is intended to honor a student who brings a healthy balance of confidence, skill, and joy to the vocation of teaching. Eligible candidates must have a GPA of 3.5, plans to attend a four-year institution in the state of Kentucky with intentions to become a teacher, and evidence of admittance.

Winners of the inaugural Elva Sears Jones Scholarship in Teaching were announced at a Jones Foundation awards ceremony hosted by Monticello Banking Company in May 2007. Pictured (L-R) with Mrs. Jones, they are: Heather Vaught, Pulaski County High School; Melissa Pierce, Somerset High School; and Kyle Curry, Southwestern High School. Together, the first winners of the Elva Sears Jones Scholarship in Teaching have an average GPA of 4.06. The Jones Foundation elected to add $500 to the $1,000 scholarship and award students from three area high schools $500 each.