Obituary of William Harold Jones, Sr.

A service to celebrate the life of William Harold Jones, Sr., will be held Thursday, June 8, 2023, at 11 am at Mr. Tabor Lutheran Church, 1000 “B” Avenue, West Columbia, SC 29169, with Pastor Rus Stilwell and Rev. Dr. Pat Riddle officiating.  Interment will follow in the Mt. Tabor Cemetery.  The family will receive friends prior to the service starting at 10 am in the Assembly Room at the church.   

Mr. Jones was the son of the late Stanford Refo Jones, Sr. and Alberta Ida Burnette Jones.  He graduated from Brookland-Cayce High School (BCHS) in 1952 and married Martha JoAnn (Norris) Jones on September 1, 1954, at Mt. Tabor Lutheran Church.  While attending BCHS, he was the student body vice-president and lettered in football, baseball, and basketball.  He served in the Air National Guard from 1951 to 1959.  He was employed as a salesman for Edco Chemical Company for 28 years.  He branched out on his own in 1971 when he became the co-founder and co-owner of Smith & Jones Janitorial Supplies.  He was an active member of Mt. Tabor; he served on the Property Committee and as an usher for worship services.  He was a member of the Palmetto A’s-Model A Club of America and a lifetime member of the Cayce Masonic Lodge where he was a Mason and a Shriner.  Being an avid golfer, “Hambone” scored four holes-in-one during his amateur golfing career.  He also won the Hidden Valley Senior Club Championship two years in a row: 1999 and 2000.  His son, Hal, won the regular championship in 2000, making them the only father/son championship combination in history.  He was inducted into the BCHS Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998.  His love for his high school alma mater and his love for World War II history merged when he started research on a monument project to be constructed at BCHS.  He and other like-minded volunteers gathered the information to honor those who had attended school in Lexington 2 School District and had served in World War II.  After years of being called the “Grave Finder,” Hambone completed the World War II monument with each person’s name being on a brick.  Later, he organized and constructed a memorial at the Columbia Army Air Base honoring the Doolittle Raiders.  More recently, his son Jeff has renovated the old Red Cross building in the Columbia Army Air Base area, and it will be dedicated in Hambone’s memory on July 4, 2023.  The Red Cross Building will be named the W. Harold Jones Life Skills Center and will be used by the Scooter Scott Project to help teens learn domestic skills, history, and service to others.  

Surviving are his wife, JoAnn; daughter, Jennifer (Franklin); sons, Hal (Sandy), and Jeff (Debbie). His grandchildren inlcude Mandy (Marcus), Jessica, Katie, Joel (Courtney), and Ben. Great-grandchildren are Gwendolyn and Cooper. He is preceded in death by his brother, Stanford Refo Jones, Jr., and his grandson, Jonathan Ezra Smith.   

Memorials may be made to Mt. Tabor Lutheran Church, 1000 “B” Avenue, West Columbia, SC 29169 or to the Scooter Scott Project, 1 Biloxi Square, West Columbia, SC 29170.  Please mark checks for the W. Harold Jones Life Skills Center.