Alum recalls Claremore childhood

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October 10, 2008

Tom Fink The Claremore Daily Progress Fri Oct 10, 2008, 11:47 AM CDT

October 10, 2008 — When C. Darnell Jones II returns to Claremore for Homecoming this weekend, he returns as a man of accomplishment.

He was recently confirmed as a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern Pennsylvania District, and his career achievements are as extensive as they are prestigious.

He was elected President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas (in Philadephia) in December 2005 and was later appointed Chair of the Administrative Governing Board of the First Judicial District by the Supreme Court.

As President Judge, and Chair of the AGB, Jones oversees 137 judges, 1,965 employees and a $ 114 million budget.

But walking home from junior high football practice in the 1960s, all he really wanted was a cookie.

“It was more than 40 years ago, but I’ll never forget it,” Jones said this week. “My buddy, Toe Joe, and I were coming home from football practice. This is when the junior high was on Ninth Street.

“We were walking home and my mom had always told me to ‘come straight home’ after practice because she didn’t want us to get in any trouble,” he said. “We were walking by Mike Shelton’s house and his mom, Betty Shelton, came outside, wearing her June Cleaver apron, and holding a plate of fresh-baked cookies.

“There were some other boys around, white boys, and they were going ‘This is great’, but Toe Joe and I thought we probably shouldn’t ask for any of them,” he said.

“But she came over to us and held them up for us to see. Every time we’d reach to get one, she’d take a step back. We’d reach again, and she’d take another step back, until she backed into her house, and then she told us ‘Now that I’ve got you in my house, I’m going to pour you some milk to go with those.’”

Jones never forgot Mrs. Shelton’s kindness — or her cookies.

“Growing up in Claremore, for me, epitomized the adage of it taking a village to raise a child,” he said.

“Those were much different times. This was pre-integration, and the black students went to Lincoln School. But my (white) friends and I were bound at the hip. We genuinely loved each other and would stick up for each other, especially when I got into sports and we would go to another town that might not treat the black athletes so well. To paraphrase an old saying, it was the best of times, but it was never really the worst of times.”

Jones will be among the alumni converging on Claremore this weekend, revisiting their hometown and reflecting on their own “best of times.”

“After breakfast at Eggbert’s with some of my former classmates, I’m sure I’ll go by my old home on South Cherokee — I always do — make my normal rounds around town and go to my old church, Mount Zion, Sunday morning,” he said. “It’s going to be a full weekend.”

Jones graduated from Claremore High School in 1968, before studying at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kan., where he earned a degree and participated in football and track.

“My family is legendary for having teachers and educators — my mom, my dad, and even my grandfather, W.C. ‘Prof.’ Jones, all were either teachers or principals,” he said. “They had told me there was security in being a teacher, but after finishing my degree at Southwestern, I decided to go into law school at the American University in Washington, D.C. After graduating in 1975, I moved to Philadelphia where I went to work as an assistant public defender and started climbing the ladder of my law career.”

Jones has been a judge in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia since 1987.

In spite of Jones’ accomplishments, he never forgot his roots. He returns at every opportunity.

“People tell me often how well-rounded I am, particularly for having come from such an itty-bitty town in the Midwest, but it’s because of my parents and the people in that itty-bitty town that I became so well-rounded,” Jones said. “My time in Claremore was, and will always be, one of the finest times of my life.”

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