William B. Jones

William B. Jones, MD, age 90, passed away on Tuesday, March 12, 2019. Born on April 8, 1928, in Sarasota, FL and raised in Ocala, he was the older son of Bonnie Maude and Jean Edward Jones. He was a resident of The Cascades in Greenville, SC.

After graduating from high school in Panama City, Bill attended The Citadel in Charleston, SC. While at The Citadel, he was in the Air Force ROTC, and was a member of G and H Companies. His senior year, he was a member of The Summerall Guards, one of the premier military drill units in the United States. Upon graduation in 1950, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.

He began medical school at Duke University in the fall of 1950. While his early summers during med school were spent on merchant ships, during the summer after his third year he was offered a job at the hospital in Martinsville, VA helping in the emergency room.  It was while there that he noticed “all these good-looking nurses, and one in particular that was sashaying around the halls and corridors in a scrub dress”; that one particular nurse became his wife of 65 years, Ann Oakley Jones. Ann and Bill were married in June of 1954 and began an amazing life together.

After graduation Bill was sent to Randolph AFB in Texas to attend Flight Surgeon School from 1954-1955. While Ann and Bill were at Randolph, their first daughter, Lee, was born. Soon after her birth, Bill was transferred to Toul-Rosieres Air Base France, where they would spend the next three years. In 1958, Bill returned to Duke Medical School to do his residency training in orthopedic surgery. While in Durham, his second daughter, Kaye, was born. After finishing his residency in 1962, he resumed active duty at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi, where their third daughter, Lynn, was born, and later Hunter AFB in Savannah. He left active duty in 1966 and moved to Greenville to open a private practice which would last 34 years.

Bill left the Air Force with a total of 33 years of active and reserve duty, including active duty during Operation Desert Storm in 1992. He retired as a Colonel. He later served in the South Carolina State Guard and the South Carolina Joint Services Detachment, where he was promoted to Brigadier General.

Bill and Ann loved to travel, and visited dozens of countries and all seven continents during their life together. They loved Europe, but also Africa, Australia, the Middle East, and the Far East. They witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall with their family. Bill and Ann shared their love of travel with their children and grandchildren.

Bill loved The Citadel and always came back for Homecoming with his classmates. He loved working with his hands, whether on his farm, in the garden, or repairing things around the house. He loved the beach and taught his children to crab and shrimp in the creeks at Hilton Head. He loved good food and good company, and had a particular sweet tooth for apple pie a la mode and his granddaughter’s brownies.

Bill is survived by his wife Ann, his daughters Lee Farrar (Steve) of Greenville, Kaye Wallace (Johnny) of Charleston, and Lynn Waters (Stephen) of Simpsonville, grandchildren Burr Farrar, Batten Farrar, James Waters, and Katie Waters, and two great-grandchildren, Jones Farrar and Mary Frances Farrar. Bill was predeceased by his brother Laurie Jones.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, March 16, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. at The First Baptist Church of Greenville. The family will receive friends afterwards at the church.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Shriners Hospital for Children in Greenville, 950 W. Faris rd., Greenville, SC 29605, First Baptist Church of Greenville, 847 Cleveland St., Greenville, SC 29601, or The Citadel Foundation, 171 Moultrie St., Charleston, SC 29409.

Thomas McAfee Funeral Home, Downtown.