Eva M. Jones, Baltimore schools educator
Eva M. Jones, a retired Baltimore public school educator who enjoyed writing poetry, died April 21 from cancer at Symphony Manor, a Roland Park assisted-living facility. She was 81.
The daughter of the Rev. Harry Baldwin and Julia Anna Drake Baldwin, the former Eva Mary Baldwin was born and raised in Philadelphia, where she graduated from Simon Gratz High School.
She obtained a degree in education in 1958 from Cheyney Training School for Teachers, now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia.
She later received a master’s degree in education from the Johns Hopkins University.
While attending Cheyney, she met and fell in love with fellow student Earl Roger Jones, and they married in 1960.
The couple moved to Baltimore, and Mrs. Jones taught kindergarten through the 12th grade, and special education students, in city public schools. She later became a traveling educator who visited and taught special-needs students in their homes. She retired in the 1990s. A lifelong Democrat, the Roland Park resident worked on the political campaigns of William Donald Schaefer and Kurt L. Schmoke. She was a former member of the board of the Friends School, and a lifelong member of Omega Psi Phi.
Family members said Mrs. Jones enjoyed writing poetry and children’s books, and looked forward to hosting an annual Christmas party at her home. She also liked attending the theater, dining on crab cakes, watching cooking shows and sipping champagne, according to her son, John Frederick Jones of Denver.
Mrs. Jones was a well-known figure at Grand Cru at Belvedere Square, where she often enjoyed a glass of wine with a cadre of friends she met there.
Her husband, a retired Baltimore schools assistant superintendent, died in 2015.
Mrs. Jones was a member of the Stony Run Friends Meeting House, 5116 N. Charles St., where a memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. May12.
In addition to her son, Mrs. Jones is survived by daughter Elaine Marie Jones of Farmville, Va.; a brother, Frederick Douglas Baldwin of Washington; a sister, Doris Louise Baldwin Lawrence of Georgia; and two grandchildren. can say: Nobody bothers me! Nobody bothers me!” It concluded with a wink from Chun Rhee, then age 5, who declared: “Nobody bothers me, either!” The jungle was written by Nils Lofgren, who studied at a Rhee gym and later became guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. In 1965 Mr. Rhee organized the Congressional Taekwondo Club, and by his count he trained more than 250 lawmakers, including then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Senator and future Vice President Joe Biden.
Jhoon Goo Rhee was born in Asan, Korea, in 1932. He began learning taekwondo, “the way of the foot and fist,” as a high school student. He worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Air Force after the Korean War broke out in 1950 and was drafted into the South Korean army.
He wrote books, led seminars and starred in a film, “When Taekwondo Strikes,” also known as “The Sting of the Dragon Masters” in 1973. In the mid-1970s he became a trainer to Mr. Ali, teaching a right-handed move that the boxer said was so fast, “you won’t hardly see it.”
He retired from teaching in 1980, sold his company and introduced taekwondo to the former Soviet Union, where Jhoon Rheeaffiliated schools now exist in Ukraine, Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.