Gene Jones

Board

The guiding influence behind one of the most prominent and visible families in the southwest, Gene Jones has spent a lifetime in the pursuit of helping others. While her husband has left his mark on the athletic world as one of the nation’s most highly visible and successful sports franchise owners, Gene Jones has displayed the same type of drive and ambition in the area of community involvement.

Under Gene’s enthusiastic direction, the Jones family has taken on a major leadership role in their involvement with the Salvation Army—both at the local and national levels. Gene, along with her husband Jerry, are members of The Salvation Army’s DFW Metroplex Board and National Advisory Board. In conjunction with the local Salvation Army offices, The Gene and Jerry Jones Family Center for Children was opened in November of 1998.  The center offers a variety of special programs for children of need in the Irving, Texas area.

In addition to serving on the DFW Metroplex Salvation Army Board, Gene Jones is a current member of the Southern Methodist University Board of Trustees, as well as a member of the executive board for the Meadows School for the Arts and the board of directors for the John G. Tower Center for Political Studies at SMU. In 2004, Gene Jones was honored at “The Grand Event: Meadows at the Meyerson” for her dedication of time, talent and commitment to the SMU campus and the larger community. 

As a member of the board of trustees for Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, Mrs. Jones has coordinated the Dallas Cowboys annual Christmas visits to the facility for each of the past 16 years. The holiday visitation program, which involves every member of the football team and the prestigious Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, now extends to five different hospitals throughout Dallas and Ft. Worth.

Gene Jones supports the Dallas-Fort Worth artistic community as a member of the executive board of directors and the President’s Advisory Council for the Dallas Center for Performing Arts. Gene and Jerry Jones became members of the Dallas Center for the Performance of Arts’ Founding Family Donor Program in 2004.

Recently, she has become a member of the Texas Cultural Trust Board, which raises money and awareness for the arts statewide with a focus on arts education.  The Trust is partnered with the state of Texas through the Texas Commission on the Arts, the Texas Film Commission and the Texas Film Office.  In addition, Mrs. Jones has participated, for several years, on the committee which promotes Celebration of Reading events throughout the Dallas Area.

Likewise, Gene Jones donates time to the advisory board for Family Gateway  and has received the Annette Strauss Humanitarian Award from Family Gateway.  She has chaired the Sweetheart Ball which supports UT Southwestern Medical Center and is currently on the Sweetheart Board of Directors.

Gene and Jerry are members of the Madison Council and have made possible the reconstruction of  Thomas Jefferson’s  Library at the Library of Congress.

Gene’s commitment to helping others expanded to a wide range of charitable pursuits.  She directed many philanthropic activities benefiting various charities throughout Arkansas.

Her dedication to motherhood, family and community led to Mrs. Jones being named the Florence Crittendon Award winner in Arkansas in 1991 and in 1996, she was recognized for her decade-long devotion to the Hope Lodge project by being named the recipient of the prestigious Hope Award in Little Rock.

Gene Chambers Jones was born on February 14, 1942 in Danville, Arkansas. Shortly after enrolling at the University of Arkansas, Gene met Jerry Jones, a scholarship football player from North Little Rock, Arkansas.  The couple was married in January of 1963.

Gene is the mother of three successful children – Stephen, Charlotte and Jerry, Jr. – and the proud grandmother of nine. Gene’s husband, Jerry, is the owner of the Dallas Cowboys and one of the most influential, successful and visible figures in all of professional sports.

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