Friends, employees remember former JC Press co-owner, editor “Johnny” Jones

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Longtime Johnson City Press editor-in-chief and co-owner John A. “Johnny” Jones “had the best interest of the community at heart at all times,” former employee and friend Tom Harris said Friday.

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Jones, whose father Carl A. Jones owned the daily paper when Jones was growing up, died Tuesday in Johnson City. He was 78. He was one of four siblings, including three brothers who were closely involved in the family business until they sold it in 2002. Preceded in death by his parents and one brother, he is survived by a brother, a sister, his partner Michelle Goebel, and his daughter Jacqueline Jones Hawks, as well as numerous nieces and nephews. A memorial service is set for May 11 at Munsey United Methodist Church according to an obituary on the Morris-Baker Funeral Home website.

Harris, who was advertising director for the Press and also served as publisher of the Jones-owned Erwin Record, said Johnny Jones “was just like all the rest of the Joneses; they cared deeply about their employees.”

In the case of Johnny Jones — a 1964 graduate of Science Hill High School who was in East Tennessee State University’s inaugural class of communications graduates in 1969 — that care extended to the community and the political sphere, Harris and others said.

Tennessee Senator Rusty Crowe called Jones “a consummate newspaper man” who had left his father proud and grateful that the family included “a journalist to take over the paper when he passed away.”

Crowe said Jones — a Democrat who took a six-month leave of absence in 1986 to direct communications for Ned McWherter’s successful Tennessee gubernatorial campaign — “covered my political career honestly and with integrity, hitting me hard when he needed to but giving praise when appropriate as well.”

He remembered Jones’ disappointment when Crowe, switched parties to become a Republican in the early 1990s, saying he “always appreciated that his friendship remained.”

Harris said that description aligned with a man he remembered as “wanting to be fair about everything even though he wasn’t afraid to take a hard stance on something … he wanted to be sure he provided the news in an impartial manner at all times.”

That approach helped shape the career of Don Armstrong, who worked for the Press during the latter years of the Jones ownership and is now Director of Student Media and Adviser to the East Tennessean at ETSU.

“Johnny cared not only for telling accurate stories that impacted the people of the region, but he also cared for those who worked for the publication,” Armstrong said via email. He called himself “fortunate” to have worked under a family newspaper ownership model, which he called “a rarity in today’s digital age.”

“That spirit of family isn’t as common in the 2024 journalism world, but I try to carry that influence in my daily work with students. His death is a great loss for the community.”

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Tom Hager has much longer memories involving Jones. The Johnson City School Board member grew up in the same neighborhood as Jones and remembers him and Carleton, the youngest of the three Jones brothers, very well.

“Cotty and Johnny were just like brothers to me and I’ve known him since we were six years old.”

Hager described Jones as “always really friendly.”

“He always wanted to do a little dabbling in politics, and we had a good time discussing different issues – just very very enjoyable talking with him about politics. Just a great, great guy and I consider him a dear friend,” Hager said.

Jones moved to Middle Tennessee after the sale of the papers but returned to Johnson City several years ago and moved into Hager’s west Johnson City neighborhood.

“He had this little dog named Stella, and my granddaughter also lives in the neighborhood and I always knew when Johnny had walked Stella because my granddaughter would say, ‘I saw Mr. Jones and Stella today. She always went out and talked to him and petted Stella.”

Tom Harris worked more than 30 years for the newspaper group that also included the Jonesborough Herald and Tribune and Mountain City Tomahawk as well as a couple Middle Tennessee papers.

He described Jones as someone who, while not guarded, “chose his words carefully. He was one of these people that he was very deliberate and considered everything he said, but when he said it, he meant it.”

Jones led the formation of two Johnson City Press community staples, the Christmas Box and the Newspapers in Education program. He served at the state level as a member and chairman of the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission. He worked with Crowe and the late State Representative Ralph Cole of Elizabethton to create the state’s “Watchable Wildlife” license tag, which funds non-game wildlife habitat enhancement programs throughout the state.

He served on a host of local boards, was by his father’s side during the push for establishing ETSU’s Quillen College of Medicine, and was honored as an outstanding ETSU alumnus in 2006.

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