Before graduating from Utah State in 1939, Jones and his bride went to weekend spelling bees at the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake where he entered spelling bees for money. He was awarded $1 for spelling difficult words and $1.50 for correctly spelling extremely difficult words.

That kept them in grocery money during the Depression.

Jones played the sousaphone in high school and became a vocal soloist. His family has recorded his songs on CD. His CDs were given to seniors at the Spanish Fork Senior Center. They named him "Senior of the Year" for 2005.

He taught vocational agriculture at Spanish Fork's junior high and high school.

He was the first president of the Central Utah Conservancy District, served as chief deputy under Sheriff Dick Chapple and was director of the Utah County Highway Department. He was secretary of a quarter horse association, president of the junior chamber of commerce, president of the Lions Club, district and county chairman of the Republican Party. (Yet he credits Democrats for getting him elected to the county commission.)

He chaired the farm bureau, raising funds to secure passage of the federal Upper Colorado River Storage Project Act in 1956 to bring water to Utah and the Wasatch Front.

"I had some good years, I tell you," he said. "It takes a lot of good people to have good years."

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E-mail: rodger@desnews.com