The Rev. Arthur E. Jones
Baptist pastor and Baltimore activist enjoyed gospel music and was known for keeping an ‘open door’ to help others
The Rev. Arthur Eugene Jones, a former pastor of the Jones Tabernacle Baptist Church who also ran the Maryland Baptist Aged Home, died of pneumonia Oct. 21 at Northwest Hospital. The Owings Mills resident was 88.
Born in Norfolk, Va., he was the son of Arthur Daniel Jones, also a clergyman, and his wife, Mamie. The family moved to Baltimore in 1940 and lived in Baltimore County.
Mr. Jones attended public schools in Norfolk before earning a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in church administration from what was then Virginia Seminary and College in Lynchburg, Va.
He rose to become a staff sergeant in the Army. Family members said that while he was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, he became homesick and composed a song to steady himself. He brought back his composition, “In the Tabernacle of the Lord,” after the war’s end. It was performed at his father’s church and remains in the church repertoire. He belonged to the family church, the Jones Tabernacle Baptist Church, a congregation founded by his father at 129 W. Hamburg St. in South Baltimore. The congregation outgrew that first home and relocated to Fremont Avenue. It is now at 2100 W. Baltimore St. at South Pulaski Street.
“He cared about his community and he was compassionate man,” said his daughter Catheline Henderson, a paralegal wholives in Owings Mills. “He saw all people without faults. He counseled people no matter their social status or income level. He always put service first.”
Mr. Jones was a mainly self-taught musician who also took courses at the Peabody Conservatory. He played only sacred music and composed gospel songs, hymns, anthems and spirituals. He also trained church choirs and worked with his son, Jerome V. Jones Sr., who was a church musician. They trained a gospel group that toured Europe in the mid-1990s.
“In his 66 years of pastoring his congregation, Dr. Jones took his ministry beyond the brick and mortar by uplifting the people in the community, in the state and across the nation,” said the Rev. C Guy Robinson, the church’s current pastor.
“My father did not judge people,” said another daughter, Diane Banks of Randallstown. “He might lovingly chastise you and he certainly worked for the people who sought his counsel. He would get up in the middle of the night to get someone out of jail. We in the family joked that he knew the court commissioners better than he knew some of his friends.”
She said his influence was known in the poor neighborhood where the church was located.
“Even the drug dealers respected him. They did not sell drugs at the corner of Baltimore and Pulaski,” Ms. Banks said. “The door to his study was always open. He spoke to everyone.”
Family members said that in the 1970s officials of the Baptist Convention approached Mr. Jones to head the Maryland Baptist AgedHome, a West Baltimore nursing home that was chartered in 1920 but at the time was in need of major repairs after a fire.
“They asked him to step in because of his leadership skills and his reputation for getting things done,” Ms. Henderson said. “People were drawn to him. He could work a crowd.”
She said he worked with public officials, including mayors William Donald Schaefer and Kurt L. Schmoke. He also received help from James Rouse, developer of Columbia and other projects.
To help staff the home, he recruited members of his church and volunteers.
Mr. Jones was later awarded an honorary doctorate from Virginia Seminary.
Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. today at the Jones Tabernacle Baptist Church, 2100 W. Baltimore St.
In addition to his daughters, survivors include his wife of nearly 20 years, Lavern Singletary Henderson, the church’s former Christian education director and a retired Social Security worker; another daughter, Towanda Bushrod of Jessup; and eight grandchildren. His previous wife, Clotelle Jones, died in 1992. His son died in 2005. A daughter, the Rev. Cynthia B. Jones, also died in 2005.