Mrs. Rita Jones

Rita Loyola Burke Jones passed away peacefully in her beloved Westberry St. home the morning of Wednesday, December 4, 2024. Quiet music was playing and Little David and Lane were holding her hand. Strong and healthy for 88 of her 89 years Rita had been on a pontoon boat crossing a sparkling Maine lake with the sun on her face and the wind in her hair not so very long ago. Now she is lifted up by "Team Rita" and the pure love of family and friends. Visitation will be held at Banks Funeral Home in Sylvester Georgia on Friday, December 13 from 4 PM to 6 PM. Funeral services will be held Saturday, December 14 at Pinson Memorial Methodist Church Sanctuary at 11 AM with a Luncheon to follow at the Sylvester Woman's Club/Alford Historic Home where all are invited to celebrate an extraordinary life with smiles and laughter. Flowers are optional and any memorials may be made to the Margaret M. Jones Library. Rita was born to the late Eugene Stewart Burke and Blonnie Royal Burke on October 31, 1935. My guess is she had a big irresistible smile on her face from the moment she arrived! That "Rita smile" :-)! Rita was preceded in death by her parents, her Husband David C. Jones, Sr. and Sisters Blonnie Burke Farmer and Myra Burke Hatfield. She is survived by her Son Dr. David C. Jones, Jr and Daughter-in-law Lane Seabolt Jones, Nephew Darren Lee James (Donna) and daughters Mallory and Kinsey, Niece Audrey James Yeatts and children Jason, Kayla and Whitney, Nephew Mark Fowler (Wendy)) and Sons Logan, Austin, Rylan and Mason, Nephew Chad Fowler (Maya) and Son Max, Niece Kim Sorenson and Daughter Zoe, Niece Dixie Gay (Carl) and a growing group of great nieces, great nephews and loving family. Her parents separated when she and her baby sister Blonnie were quite young leaving her father a single dad. Traveling statewide for his work with the early Georgia State Patrol Lieutenant Colonel Burke needed help with his two girls so for a time they boarded in turn with "Boo" Cooper in Pavo" and "Mama" Shell in Sylvester. Each of these homes were brimming full of love and Rita always said most people only get one mother while she was blessed with three! Rita held Blonnie's little hand tight through these years until their dad remarried and they had yet another loving Mom. Olga Burke sewed her dresses, taught her to cook and created a home. Soon younger sister Myra was born and the Burke family was complete. A shy, fair haired girl who loved to read and was a bit of a homebody Rita was in the very first Beta Club in 1950 and the Tri-Hi-Y club in 1952 then topped it all off being honored with the "Best All-around Girl" award by the Worth County High School faculty in 1954. She later attended Peavy Business School then worked in Dr. Norman Crowe's office and at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital. In her senior year Rita was chosen to go to Atlanta as a Page in the Georgia Legislature and there met a charming young attorney and legislator. She must've made an impression since once back home young David Jones asked her out and a match was made. Two soulmates had found each other. She brought out the best in him and he widened her world into a lifetime of hard work and adventures galore. They were inseparable. Together they were a dynamic team who understood the way to get ahead was through hard work and frugality. Early on David told Rita he would happily buy her an engagement ring OR she could have appliances for the kitchen in their little duplex. Rita chose the appliances :-). Together they ran a Law Practice, an Insurance Agency and a Real Estate office. They bought and sold land, timber, rental properties, farms, two successful grocery stores, a dry cleaners, an apartment complex and a gas station and gift shop on I-75 called Lee's plantation. They later developed Pineknoll Subdivision and donated adjacent land that would prove pivotal in creating both the Pineknoll Golf Course and Sylvester Airport. Every penny they could spare they invested aggressively into the burgeoning stock market of the 50's and 60's often described as the "Golden Age of Wall Street". They bought into the top companies of their time and rode a post war market expansion that funded evermore ambitious plans. All this is just business talk but the point is they did it TOGETHER. Much of this was not glamorous work but she didn't shy away from any of it because the quiet homebody didn't mind getting her hands dirty. She stepped up! Rita stocked the shelves of Food Center, Inc. and Royal's Food Mart faster than the stock boys did then cut up chicken and beef in the butcher shop alongside the butcher. She worked the cash registers, collected apartment rents, read water meters, renovated flip houses and planted acres of landscaping all the while filling thousands of pages with meticulous pen and ink notations in stacks of ledgers filling shelf after shelf in the Jones Law Office. David "Little David "Jones, Jr. came along early on Christmas Day in 1956. Rita helped her son through every trial of life. She read to him from infancy, encouraged him endlessly as a student and in his college years at UGA got on a Greyhound bus to Athens to offer the comfort only a Mother could when the pressures of pursuing a demanding Pre-Med curriculum on top of a Banking and Finance degree grew too great to shoulder alone. Her life became even richer when her son married Lane Seabolt Jones. Rita gained the daughter she had never had and a best friend in Lane's Mom Willie. Rita and Little David (and Grandma Jones as well for that matter :-) thought the sun rose and set on Lane and they were right! It wasn't all hard work of course. In her full life Rita managed to snorkel for lobster in the Bahamas, land game fish in the Keys, paddle kayaks, ride jet skis, pedal her three wheel bike, stroll the streets of London and Paris, float rapids on a raft in Jamaica, ride mules to a mountain top fortress in Haiti, fly helicopters into the Grand Canyon, take off in float planes from the waters of Puget Sound and go boating on the "Miss Rita" from Islamorada to Panacea! In the years Little David and Lane were building their Cancer Centers in Texas God still had his eye on David and Rita Jones. They were never really "empty-nesters". Family friend Ray Griffin and Rita's nephew Darren James became a big part of both of their lives. Each stepped in as new sons for Rita while her own child was far from home. No two men could've done more. On Ray's untimely passing Darren's devotion remained steadfast. He became the little brother David Jr never had and day after day quietly helped Rita, David and Lane alike on Rita's last journey. After Big David’s death in 2010 Rita moved into town and bought her beloved Westberry Street home. She made it her own with its sky blue "haint paint" porch, nicely landscaped grounds and cheerful yellow door. "Come visit with me on my porch!" was her trademark invitation and if you took her up on it you somehow left happier and more hopeful than when you arrived. From her new headquarters (often accompanied by Lane's sweet Aunt Mae) she traveled the world with little David and Lane, supported her favorite cause the Margaret M. Jones Library and offered a helping hand to more friends and family than we will ever know. In these years she proved to be an astute business woman as well methodically selling assets when the prices were right, flipping homes when the real estate market peaked and continuing a knack for successful investing. She may have let Big David do most of the talking but that didn't mean she hadn't been paying attention! In recent years her good works caught up with her as she was invited to be the Grand Marshal of the Sylvester Christmas Parade in December 2023 and was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Sylvester-Worth County Chamber Of Commerce in February 2024. In true Rita fashion she was completely surprised by each honor but bursting with pride at the unexpected recognition. What a glorious life she led. What a fine example she set. This amazing woman will be sorely missed and perhaps most of all we will miss that radiant "Rita smile" :-)! Oh,that Rita smile :-)!

Mrs. Rita Jones

October 31, 1935 - December 4, 2024