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J. D. JONES PUBLISHER
(1908-1955)
DOYLE JONES JR.—Editor and
Publisher
Published every Thursday at 129 South Mulberry
Street. Jackson, Georgia 30233 by The Progress-Argus
Printing Cos.. Inc. Second Class Postage paid at
Jackson. Georgia 30233.
Address notice of undeliverable copies and other
correspondence to The Jackson Progress-Argus, P.O.
Box 249, Jackson, Georgia 30233.
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
jRBCHTHM _.. ’HL
rmprtugi NNA SUSTAINING
* ,tT B 1 MEMBER — 1975
Advance Subscription Rafes,
Tax Included:
One Year $6.18
School Year $5.15
Six Months $3.87
Single Copy 15c
(Editor’s Note: Our guest columnist this week is
Vincent Jones, former publisher of the Jackson
Progress-Argus and author each week of a widely read and
quoted column entitled The Last Straw. This editorial
appeared on December 23, 1954.)
According to legend, age appears to be at its best in four
things old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to
trust, and old books to read.
At this Christmas tide, Christians throughout the world
will dust off their Bibles and renew again their acquaintance
with the gospel authors who recorded so vividly the birth of
the Christ child.
Besides this momentous miracle, all other stories and
all other events pale into insignifance. Even the story of the
resurrection fails to match its pathos and absolute
importance. For if He had not been born, then He could never
have died and arisen.
The symbolism that accompanies the present day
keeping of His natal day, the giving of gifts, the gaily
decorated homes and the predominant festival spirit, all
spring from the bold fountains of God’s love that lit the
Bethelem star.
There are other old books to read. Plato, Aristotle,
Homer and Socrates are real old writers and real good ones
but they never wrote about anything, fictional or real, as
dramatic and as eternally powerful as the birth of Christ.
What other authors, save the Gospel ones, wrote of an
event so gripping and yet so simple that every first-grade
child in this country can give a garbled, but fairly accurate,
account of it?
Do our young children know of Caesar’s legions, or the
ravages of that scourge of God, Attila the Hun, or the
beautiful and idealistic philosophy of the Greek writer, Plato?
Children love and cling to the story of the Christ child’s
birth because it contains all the essence of what they like in a
story, mystery, love, a happy ending and, best of all, it’s true.
If Santa Claus has been added as their patron saint of
the season, then that’s all right, too, for Santa Claus is good
and kind and generous and he appeals to that basic impulse of
childhood which makes a child instinctively prefer goodness
to evil.
Commercially, the season has become a bonanza for
the merchants. A philosopher might attribute this desire to
give gifts to one another as a guilty complex on the part of
Christians who are moved by the lessons of the season and
realize their inadequacy to give God a suitable gift. Asa
substitute, Uncle Harry gets a tie and Aunt suzy a stole.
But whatever the motives that drive us, and let the
thinkers slide-rule them as best they can, it is a gay, happy
and joyous time for all. For just a few brief days in the year,
the blinders of intolerance are removed from our eyes and the
love of God filters into the windows of our sin-rotten souls.
And if it is a season when the home is king, then it is the
time of the year when the children reign. For truly it is the
time when they are at their wildest best, excitedly filling the
day and night with talk of the approaching event.
Love is the theme of Christmas. God’s gift to the world
in Christ was prompted by love. The hordes of Caesar and
Attila brought hate and destruction and ruin to the world.
They are gone and forgotten. But Christ lives and Christmas
lives, through His grace in the hearts of Christians
everywhere, because love lives.
May your Christmas season be filled with such an
overflowing bounty of love as to make significant every day of
the New Year.
ruth at random
By Ruth Bryant
IN MEMORIAM
DOYLE JONES
A friend to all of Jackson,
This tower of strength has gone!
But fresh, and firm, and vivid,
His memory lingers on!
A man composed of sunshine,
Seasoned with humor, too,
Harnessed by will and purpose,
His memory glows anew!
An editor clothed with “know-how”
And brilliant repertoire,
A light for darkened places,
His memory is like a star!
TELEPHONE 775-3107
OFFICIAL ORGAN
BUTTS COUNTY AND
CITY OF JACKSON
THE JACKSON PROGRESS-ARGUS, JACKSON, GEORGIA
Georgia Editors Pay Tribute to Doyle Jones, Jr.
IN SYMPATHY: Along
with other news folks, I was
shocked and saddened last
week by the death of Doyle
Jones, able and congenial
publisher of the Progress-
Argus in Jackson.
I doubt there is a
University of Georgia foot
ball fan more intensely loyal
than Doyle was. He had been
planning a special railroad
car or a charter bus to take a
Butts County delegation to
the Cotton Bowl. I hope I’m
not being maudlin in exhort
ing the Bulldogs to go to
Dallas and win one for Doyle.
Leo Aikman
The Atlanta Constitution
Friday, December 19
Georgia journalism and
the Georgia Press Associa
tion have lost a worthy
newspaperman.
And I have lost a friend and
a Board member of the GPA
who was doing a great and
effective job in helping to
provide better educational
opportunities for young Geor
gians in journalism.
We shall all miss him, but
all of us are profiting by
having been associated with
Doyle.
W. H. Champion, Editor
Dublin Courier Herald
Last Rites For
Doyle Jones, Jr.
Bring Visitors
Among the out of town
friends and relatives who
visited the homes of the
Doyle Jones family and the
Vincent Jones family or
attended funeral services for
Mr. Doyle Jones, Jr. on
December 12th at the
Jackson Presbyterian
Church were:
Mrs. H. P. Jones, Sr., Mr.
and Mrs. H. P. Jones, Jr., of
Statesboro; Mr. and Mrs. J.
E. Jones of Warner Robins,
Mrs. Leßoy Stapleton of
Metter, Congressman John
J. Flynt, Jr. and Crisp B.
Flynt, Washington, D. C.,
General William Rogers i
Woodward of Atlanta, Judge
Hugh D. Sosebee of Forsyth.
Mr. and Mrs. 0. L. Holmes
of New Orleans, La., Mr. and
Mrs. Lewis O. Crawford, Jr.
and Mrs. Jean C. Moody,
Charlotte, N. C.; Mr. and
Mrs. Linton Thompson of
Arlington, Miss Emma Grif
feth, Mrs. H. N. Chick, Mr.
and Mrs. R. L. Griffeth, Mrs.
Irene G. Brooks, Woodrow
W. Griffeth, Terrell Brooks,
Mr. and Mrs. Charles W.
Griffeth, Jr., David Griffeth,
Mrs. Tommy Gentry, and
Mrs. Lois Kenney, all of
Athens; R. W. Montgomery
of Watkinsville.
Dr. Thomas W. Huff of
Decatur, Mrs. Virginia
Sweatt, Mr. and Mrs. Warren
Bateman, Dr. and Mrs. Ed
Evans, Mr. and Mrs. Marvin
L. Summers, all of Atlanta;
Mr. and Mrs. Bill Mitchell of
Barnesville, Smith Price of
Carrollton, Rev. and Mrs.
Wade H. Bell, Jr. of
Valdosta, Mr. and Mrs. Bert
Kinard of Macon ; Represen
tative J. R. Smith, Senator
Peter Banks, Mrs. Louis
Banks, all of Barnesville;
Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Newman
of Mansfield, Benjamin L.
Mays of Atlanta.
Mr. and Mrs. Ed Copeland,
Mrs. Carl Thacker, Miss
Myrtie Hunt, all of McDon
ough; Tom Payne, Mr. and
Mrs. Warren Haisten, Bill
Haisten, Mrs. Kipling Wise,
Mr. and Mrs. Abner Cald
well, Mrs. William V.
Edwards, Mrs. Edna Cope
land White, Mrs. Ruth Smith
Copeland, F. D. (Sonny)
Hunt, Mrs. Edna Hunt, Mrs.
C. W. Preston and Mr. and
Mrs. H. D. Garrison, all of
Griffin.
Mrs. Walter Quinn Gres
ham of Milner, Mrs. W. S.
Norman of Southport, N. C.,
Mrs. Laverte O’Neal King of
Pensacola, Fla., Roy Cousins
of Greenville, Garland Hud
gins of Marietta.
Members of the Georgia
Press Association who
served as honorary pallbear
ers were Mr. and Mrs. W. H.
Champion of Dublin, Mr. and
Mr Quimbv Meltpo of
The Henry County Weekly-Advertiser, Thursday, December 18, 1975
O \jj
Its Hard To Lose A Good Neighbor
During all of the years I have
been in the newspaper business
in McDonough, Doyle Jones
was publisher in Jackson.. He
was one of my close friends
and a better neighbor news
paper publisher no man ever
had.
When I had mechanical
problems the first person who
came to mind was Doyle and
when anything went wrong in
his place he got on the
A Resolution
WHEREAS, on December 10, 1975, the Georgia Press
Association and the State of Georgia lost a distinguished
newspaperman and public servant, and a man of great moral
and religious conviction with the passing of Doyle Jones
Junior; and,
WHEREAS, he had served as voice and conscience of his
community for thirty years as editor of the Jackson
Progress-Argus; and,
WHEREAS, he had served the Georgia Press Association in
various places of leadership, as board member, committee
chairman and member of the Georgia Press Educational
Foundation’s Board of Governors; and,
WHEREAS, he had been active in the civic and religious
affairs of his town and county, as former elder, deacon and
Sunday School Superintendent and Adult Bible Class teacher
in the Jackson Presbyterian Church; as secretary for the
Butts County Democratic Executive Committee; member of
the Butts County Selective Service Board; member of the
Butts County Hospital Authority; president of the Jackson
Kiwanis Club and its “Man of the Year” in 1972; and,
WHEREAS, a graduate of the University of Georgia he had
supported its program with his talents and enthusiasm; and,
WHEREAS, his loss and influence will be greatly missed by
his fellow newspapermen in the Georgia Press Association,
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, by the Board of
Managers of the Georgia Press Association, that we hereby
express our deepest regret and personal loss at the passing
of our good friend, Doyle Jones, Junior, and extend our love
and deepest sympathy to Martha Jones, his widow, and to
Vincent Jones, his brother.
Adopted unanimously, this thirteenth day of December,
1975.
W. H. Champion, President
Attest: Julia Dyar, Secretary
Griffin, Sanders Camp of
Monroe, Jim Wood of
Jonesboro, Leo Mallard of
Covington, Bobby Linch of
McDonough, Mr. and Mrs.
Bill Hughes of Monticello,
Elliott Brack of Lawrence
ville, Jere Moore of Milledge
ville, Mr. and Mrs. Bob
Williford of Elberton, Mr.
and Mrs. Bob Tribble of
Manchester, Bill Dennis of
Barnesville, Don Daniel of
Forsyth, and members of the
GPA staff in Atlanta includ
ing Mrs. Julia Dyar, Mrs.
Eloise Jenkins, Cathy Chaf
fin, and Joe Puckett.
ONE SOLITARY LIFE
Here is a man who was born in an obscure village,
the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another
obscure village. He worked in a carpenter shop unitl
He was thirty, and then for three years He was an
itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never
held an office.
He never owned a home. He never set foot inside a
big city. He never travelled two hundred miles from
the place where He was born. He had no credentials
but himself.
He had nothing to do with this world except the
naked power of his divine manhood. While still a
young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against
Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him.
He was turned over to His enemies. He went through
mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross
between two thieves.
His executioners gambled for the only piece of
property He had on earth while He was dying —and
that was His coat. When He was dead He was taken
down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of
a friend.
Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and
today He is the centerpiece of the human race and the
leader of progress. I am far within the mark when I
say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the
navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments
that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put
together have not affected the life of man upon this
earth as powerfully as that one Solitary Life.
Author Unknown
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2S, 197S
telephone to McDonough.
Doyle was a gregarious,
extroverted man. He enjoyed
having fun and the
camararderie of his fellows. He
was unquestionably the world's
greatest booster of Georgia
football, and was planning a
trip to Dallas, Texas to see
Georgia play in the Cotton
Bowl when he suffered the
massive stroke.
Even if he had survived, the
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
I am seeking men &
officers who served aboard
the mighty aircraft carrier,
the U.S.S. TICONDEROGA.
Every man who ever served
on this fine ship is entitled to
join our group. We will be
having our next Annual
Reunion this coming May at
Ticonderoga, N.Y.
If interested, & for more
details, write me, giving your
rate-rank, the Division or Air
Group, and years on board.
James H. Morgan, Jr.
Big “T” Veterans’ Assoc.
Waterside Lane
So. Berwick, Maine 03908
severity of the seizure would
never have permitted him a
normal life. Two days later
Doyle was dead.
There is a place in my life
with a void which can never be
filled. There are only so many
very good friends, and now one
has gone. It's hard to realize
Doyle won't be around to help
me the next time I have
mechanical failure with the
Griffin Daily News Thursday, December 11,1975
viewj^jioint
Quimby Melton, Jr.
Editor
Telephone 227-6336
Fairness to all
The Griffin Daily News’ policy is to be f air to everyone. The editor’s opinions are confined
to this page, and its columns are open to every subscriber. Letters to the editor are
published every Wednesday.
Doyle Jones, Jr.
Recording as it does the good and the
bad, a newspaper reflects the community
which it serves, and it reflects the
character and the personality of its editor
in the way it does its job.
Under the ownership and editorship of
Doyle Jones, Jr., who died this week, the
Jackson Progress-Argus has been a warm,
friendly and constructive newspaper
because he was that kind of person.
During his career he received and
deserved numerous recognitions including
that of “Man of the Year” in his own
community. He was a successful
newspaperman and recognized as such by
fellow editors throughout the state who
chose him to represent them on the Board
Jonesboro, News-Daily, Thursday, December 11, 1975
EO
Jimmy Stewart
'3o' for Doyle Jones
Journalism in Georgia suffered a loss
this week with the death of Doyle Jones
Jr., publisher of the Jackson Progress-
Argus, a weekly newspaper serving
nearby Butts County.
Doyle had pride in his weekly product
and was always sharing his pride with
others about the Progress-Argus. Quality
in his newspaper was never sacrificed for
quantity.
An active member of the Georgia Press
Association and other organizations, Doyle
always had a smile for everyone. He will
be missed by his fellow publishers and
other journalists who knew him. He will be
missed by the community of which he was
a member. He was active participant in
the community his newspaper served.
Most of all, Doyle will be missed deeply
by his wife and members of his family. To
them, our sincerest sympathy.
Doyle Jones is a man we remember as
being a friend to everyone. If he had
enemies we knew them not.
We remember him as being helpful to his
lellow journalists. When we were just
beginning newspaper career, calls
ITORIALS
AND OPINIONS
Compuwriter (the machine on
which this is set).
Because he came this way
the field of small town
journalism was better for it.
His community, church, family
and friends were enriched by
the presence of his 59 years.
Really, what else can a man
bring along?
We are all going to miss
Doyle Jones, rol.
of Managers of their Georgia Press
Association. He was a successful busi
nessman, an avid and authoritative sports
fan.
At one time or another we have known
him as editor, fisherman, golfer, lover of
pets (particularly cats; his Tom was
the biggest I ever saw), sports fan partial
to the University of Georgia, fellow
alumnus of its Henry W. Grady Jodroa
lism School, fellow Elk in Griffin, fellow
diner at the Elder House in Indian Springs
and best of all, just plain friend.
He will be missed, and we join in extend
ing sympathy to his wife Martha and to
other members of his family.
often were made to Doyle to find out about
happenings in Jackson. You could picture
the smile on his face as he answered the
telephone. If he didn’t know what one
wanted to know, he would find out and call
back. You never had to worry about
making another call. Doyle’s call would be
coming as soon as he had the information.
“If we can help, just give us a call,” we
remember him saying.
We also remember Doyle as being a man
who wanted to do the job and do it right.
Back in the days when the Progress-Argus
was being printed on an old flat-bed press,
he would rush to nearby Griffin to get
stereo plates made so he could go to press
on time.
We remember Doyle Jones passing
among the people at the Georgia Press
Association convention and shaking
almost everyone's hand. He didn’t have to
be introduced. If you didn’t know him, you
would in a couple of minutes.
Most newsmen close their stories by
typing “30” at the end. This is the mark of
the end of a story.
“30” Doyle.
