December 22, 1941 - October 6, 2020

Carved a place for himself, family, business in heart of city

“Pernel Jones Sr. was very dedicated to supporting his community and the people of his ward. He was a force for the economic well-being of the community,” recalls his friend and political colleague Virgil E. Brown, Jr. 

Pernel Jones Sr. died October 6, 2020. A strong business and civic force in his community, Jones never sought to stray from the Cedar Avenue neighborhood where he put down his roots shortly after arriving in Cleveland in the early 1970s. Even in his declining years, after his sons took over the funeral business in 2015, he had built from the ground up, Jones stayed close to home, moving into the Fairfax Place assisted living facility just a few blocks east of the enterprise he had built during his years of prowess. 

Jones set an example for the youth of the community, Brown notes, by epitomizing the virtue of the Booker T. Washington’s advice to “cast down your bucket where you are.”

Pernel Jones Sr. was born December 22, 1941 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the seventh of 10 children born to the union of Marshall Sr and Viola Jones. He accepted Christ at an early age and was baptized at St Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Baltimore. He was educated in the Baltimore City Public Schools, graduating from Dunbar high school. He was also a graduate of the Peabody Preparatory School of Music, where he was an excellent pianist. Pernel received a music scholarship to attend Howard University but would later continue his education at Temple University's Echols College of Mortuary Science in preparation of his life’s calling.

Pernel married Anita Louise Byrd in 1966, shortly before he entered the US Army as a draftee. He served two years and was stationed in Germany prior to his honorable discharge in 1968. Returning home, he and Anita became parents to Pernel Jones Jr. and Michael David Jones. 

When the Jones divorced in the early 1980s, Mrs. Jones returned to Baltimore. Pernel Sr., who by that time had established his funeral business in Cleveland, returned to Baltimore every month to spend time with his sons, who would eventually come to live with him in Cleveland and join the family business. The family remained close, and when Mrs. Jones became ill about ten years ago and returned to Cleveland, the once nuclear family continued to have pleasant holiday dinners together.

Pernel Jones Sr began his career as a funeral director working alongside his oldest brother Marshall Jones Jr at the Marshall W. Jones Funeral Home in Baltimore. As Pernel learned the business, he decided to open his own funeral home. He settled on making Cleveland his home, in part because he had extended family relations here and a transfer of his mortuary license to Ohio was possible.  

In 1973 he opened the Pernel Jones Funeral Home at 7204 Cedar, buying the old Cummings & Davis location when the latter business expanded to East Cleveland. At first the young family lived on 106^th & St Clair. 

That first year was l-e-a-n. Pernel Jr. remembering the business handled only one funeral that first year. Fortunately, Mom was a schoolteacher, so the family was not devoid of income. Throughout the 1980s Jones worked as a bailiff in Cuyahoga County Probate Court until his growing business demanded he retire. 

A staunch Republican, the senior Jones ran for city council more than once, but was never able to break out of the partisan straitjacket.

Meanwhile, Pernel Sr. worked diligently to make himself a part of the Cleveland community, charting a path that eventually led him to serve on more than 25 boards and charitable organizations, including the City of Cleveland Civil Service Commission, the Hough Salvation Army Advisory Board, the Ohio Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, Cleveland Big Brothers & Big Sisters and the Cuyahoga County Republican Party. He also joined the Masonic Rising Heights Lodge and was a trustee and founding member of the New Second Metropolitan Baptist Church under the leadership of the late Rev Thomas Almond.

A PLAN BROUGHT TO LIFE

Jones juxtaposed family, work, and community to create a vibrant life in his new hometown. A kind man with strong principles, building his business was never  just about making money. His dream was to build a funeral home so substantial as to take up an entire city block. And bit by bit he accomplished it. Acquiring vacant parcels along Cedar Ave. whenever they became available, Jones eventually captured the entire block from East 71^st to East 73^rd. He was regularly rejected by the city’s commercial banks until Mayor Mike White brought First Merit to the table. A million dollar project suddenly became possible with the aid of a $600,000 loan, which Jones repaid in ten years. The block long Pernel Jones Funeral Home opened in its new facility in 1998.

Jones never allowed his growing business to interfere with being a father to his two sons. It was his nurturing that brought his two sons into the business and Pernel proudly changed the name to The Pernel Jones & Sons Funeral Home as a lasting legacy for his family. The sons, who learned the difference between Dad at home and the boss on the job, affectionately called him “Mr. Jones” while at work.

Jones was preceded in death by his parents, Viola and Marshall Jones, and siblings Ella, Freddy, Paul and Maceo Jones.

He leaves to mourn two sons, Cuyahoga County Councilman Pernel (Tammy) Jones Jr and Michael David Jones; two brothers, Marshall Jones Jr [Gloria] and Warren Jones; three sisters, Vivian Jones, Joyce Jones and Brenda Jones; and a host of nieces, nephews, great-nieces, great-nephews, other relatives and friends. 

The funeral service will be held Wednesday, October 21 at 10:30AM at Mt. Sinai Baptist Church, 7501 Woodland Ave. [44104]. There will be a public viewing at the funeral home, 7120 Cedar Ave., on Monday, Oct. 19 from 3-7PM, and a wake on Tuesday, Oct. 2o from 5-7PM at Mt. Sinai Baptist Church.