Jackie Boyette Jones
April 30, 1947 to October 27, 2019

Jack wanted his obituary to begin with the fact that he stepped on a landmine and died near Danang, Vietnam in 1964. Throughout his life, he remained angry to have been dragged back from the loving light and into the hot muck of life. But those of us who loved him and whose lives he made infinitely more interesting, are grateful for this much later date of death.

Jack was born in Americus, Georgia to Mary and Stout Jones and grew up in the midst of the Goodin, and Ragsdale clans. After the death of his father, when Jack was nine, he worked at various locations to help out his mom before joining the Marine Corp at seventeen. The following two years defined the rest of his life. As a boots on the ground combat Marine, he watched his brother Marines die. He killed those he was told were the enemy. He learned the power and the torment of combat and lived with the true cost of war for the next fifty-four years.

Jack is survived by: Two sons: Michael Boyette Jones (his wife Sandra) and Mark Wesley Jones, (his wife Chelle, who could always make Jack laugh) Grandchildren: Jonathan,(his wife Diane), Katherine,(her husband Jonlee), Cassandra Jones and Troy Sunderson (his wife Amy), Mathew (his wife Maya), and Kenneth (his wife Anastasia). Great-grandchildren: Jonlee Jr, Scarlet, Delylah, Logan, Carley, Taeo, Emory, Cassie, and Kat. His step-sons: Mica, Joshua and Isaac Clark.

Every one of these relatives, be they blood kin or through marriage, have stories to tell about Jack, memories that will be passed down to those around them for many years.

In 1991, Jack married his current wife, Pamela Foster. She was his fourth spouse and one in a long list of women to love this larger-than-life man. She remained his wife and did her best to cover his back until his death.

In the 1980s Jack helped to open the first VetCenter in Eureka. Having discovered, while earning his bachelor’s degree in psychology at Sacramento State, that the symptoms of combat post-traumatic stress disorder reflected his symptoms like a mirror, he spent the rest of his life working on his own PTSD and counseling other combat veterans. Jack worked as a readjustment counselor for combat veterans at the VetCenter in Eureka and then in Hilo, Hawaii until the stress of dealing every day with the recalled horrors of war on top of his own traumas convinced the VA to send him home and pay him not to return to work. He went out on disability in 1990.

Since returning from Vietnam, Jack either moved, changed jobs, or changed wives every five years. His last wife refused to be left behind. Thus, the two of them enjoyed living in Paamul, Mexico where they spent almost as much time under water as above; Whetstone, Arizona where Jack constructed a block compound around his adobe house in the desert; the jungle outside San Carlos, Panama where Jack loved to stroll into town and buy ice cream for any child who looked like they needed a treat; Fayetteville, Arkansas where Jack became, one again, involved with other combat veteran; and finally back to Eureka, where the two had met. Each of these places was thoroughly enjoyed until the day Jack stood up and announced they were moving.

In 2014 Jack was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy. He remained at home for as long as it was possible and then, in May of 2018, moved to the Community Living Center attached to the San Francisco veteran’s hospital where he received wonderful care from a loving and extremely attentive staff.

Jack’s ashes will be scattered at sea off the Humboldt County coast.

In remembrance of Jack, his family requests you find a Vietnam combat veteran, give them a big hug, and tell them what Jack told so many, “Welcome home, Brother.”

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Jack Jones’ loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.