Decatur Jones ~ whose given name was Thomas Decatur Jones IV.

Born in 1953 in Durham to Thomas and Eloise Jones III. On November 15. 1999 St. Peter had TSA double the guard at the Pearly Gates, all to no avail.

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The Durango Herald

Thomas Decatur Jones IV died Monday, Nov. 15, 1999, in Durango. He was 46. The cause of death was not available. The Rev. Larry Osborne will officiate. Mr. Jones was formerly of Chapel Hill, N.C. He was a graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the University of Miami. Mr. Jones was an accomplished classical musician and teacher. He was preceded in death by his special friend, Lee Ann Collins of Durango.

Survivors include his sister, Harriett Zimmerman of Lexington, N.C.; his brother, Al Jones of Wilmington, N.C.; and his cousin, Watts Poe Jr. of Chapel Hill, N.C. Joint memorial services for Thomas Decatur Jones and Lee Ann Collins will be 3 p.m. Wednesday at Durango Christian Church.

From Al Jones:

I think of Decatur every day. (What a act to try and follow.) Decatur would stay up late writing songs and keeping me awake; and he said one night that he wished his girlfriend would break up with him so he could get the inspiration to write another song. I could always relate to that statement.

The blues can really pull out those feelings.

Johnny Klise and I have been working on a CD of Decatur's music for sometime now. We received the music from Skip Via and it has Jay Norem and Skip Tyroler on it. It was recorded some time ago. I am hoping to bring some copies of this CD so that we can bring back some of those memories and how good it was in the GOOD OLD DAYS!

From Deborah Fine Bair:

Decatur is another that figures in just about every childhood memory I have.

For some reason, we ended up living in the same neighborhoods, no matter where our parents moved to! It's more like a brother when you know someone like that and I couldn't count the number of times we crawled in and out of each other's windows.

Will always remember when he finally began to take his music seriously and would even play up at UNC Hospital for patients.

From Susan Sockwell Bendlin:

I still cry when I think about Decatur because I miss him so much.

Early love is powerful thing.

Most people in high school could never understand how or why we were interested in each other because we were so different.

Decatur's creative way of thinking -- and his bluntness -- changed my outlook and made me more openminded and thoughtful.

One of his many song lyrics was "Where will you be when I'm lonely? Where will you be when I'm down? Where will you be when I'm someone, with no one standing around?"

The answer is: I'm still here.

From "Gozzel" Waters:

Thomas Decatur Jones IV. WOW !!!

We were friendly throughout Phillips and CHHS, college, but became best friends (though Jones had MANY best friends because he was so GREAT) in the 80's and 90's in Miami where he, Esau and his wife Peggy Beattie Esau and I were purely by coincidence reunited.

A fabulous deal of the cards of life !

He triangulated between Miami, Chapel Hill, and Colorado in mid-late 90's.

His mom, Eloise, became my second Mom and also one of my very best friends---wonderful lady.

He is simply irreplaceable.

The essence of a true Chapel Hillian.

He was our gift. Left a permanent hole in my heart.

Dang you Jones for leaving us.

One of my very favorite, hilarious stories of Jones, that NONE of us saw, occurred when one of his affluent female sidekicks (that was one of his secrets of financial survival folks---girlfriends with MONEY) took him to England for a 2 week vacation. Jones of course got his passport in time with her help and off they flew.

Well, we all know, Decatur never went too far without at least 1 guitar and on this longer trip he had 2. Getting off the plane at London Heathrow, British Customs agents immediately spotted our zany, imposing in size, wacky and wild looking comrade dressed in his cowboy garb ........ and one look was all it took.

Customs grabbed Jones and all his gear and interrogated, searched and body searched again and again, and cross-examined him for 8, that would be 8, as in 8 HOURS......found NOTHING....but they STILL did NOT like the looks of our man Decatur....so they stamped his passport with a "UNITED KINGDOM: ACCESS DENIED" and sent him back to US on the very next plane. Jone's English vacation was 8 hours in detention at the airport and a very suspicious passport.

As soon as he got back to Chapel Hill ( I happened to be there at that time) I snagged him and we went and BURNED his passport. Can you imagine him trying to enter into any other foreign country with that passport ?

Only Decatur.

More from Goose Waters:

Jones and Gossage in Miami, circa 1995 before entering

witness protection program.

From Jim Sharpe:

Another good hearted graduate of '72 bit the dust.

I'm so sorry he had to leave us before his time.

He enjoyed having fun and many of us had good times with him.

Do we all remember the greenish colored Mustang that he drove for a long time?

It was really cool and he seemed so cool in it at the time.

It always made me want to own that style of Mustang.

It's hard to believe that he left this world way too soon!

From Mary Lou (Brown) White:

Decatur was such a joy as a friend and so full of life.

You could not be around him and not feel his great love of life.

I used to think he was way too cool to hang out with the likes of me,

but he used to call me after school to play songs that he was working on (wasn't he talented?!)

and to talk to me about his unlikely romantic feelings for Susan Sockwell -

was there EVER any less likely couple in the history of CHHS???

I loved our long conversations and just the fun of having him for a friend.

The last time I saw him was when I was when he delivered a pizza to my parents' house when my mom died.

I wish I had taken more time to talk with him that day.