Mary L. Jones, 77, West End optician

By Rick Badie

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Mary Jones had been an assistant store manager at the Amos' Drug Store, a west end landmark for nearly 50 years at Hunter and Ashby streets.

Dr. Charles Chisolm, an ophthalmologist, shopped there. He'd always admired the tall, slender woman's appearance, sense of decorum and style. He thought she'd be a good fit for his office. He asked if she'd serve as his apprentice.

She said yes.

It marked the start of a 35-year career in which Mrs. Jones assisted the late Dr. Chisolm at his Hunter Street office, now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

"She could rebuild an entire frame," said her daughter, Beryl Jones of Atlanta. "He trained her. They probably made eyeglasses for the majority of people on the west side of Atlanta.

"They had patients who would come from out of town, even as far as Acworth. "All the professors, teachers at the at the [Clark-Atlanta] university system knew them."

Mary L. Jones, 77, of Mableton, died Nov. 3, of suspected heart failure at Wellstar Cobb Hospital. A memorial service will be held 11 a.m. Monday at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church in Atlanta. Murray Brothers Funeral Home is handling arrangements.

Mrs. Jones was born in Cochran, the same Middle Georgia town her husband, Frank Jones, grew up in. After he served a stint in the Navy, the couple married, and moved to Atlanta so he could attend Morehouse College.

In the late 1940s, she worked at the drug store and a dinner club that was one of the few places in the city where blacks and whites gathered to see entertainers.  She had decided to stop work for a while and return to school when Dr. Chisolm made his offer.

Mrs. Jones, a civil rights worker and activist, always carried herself with aplomb. Her daughter called her a "hat and glove" type of lady.

"She carried herself beautifully,"  her daughter said. "She was very much into style and etiquette. People would come into the Amos' Drug Store just to look at her."

Additional survivors include another daughter, Katherine J. Harris of Houston, Tex.; a son, Maj. Kenneth D. Jones of Killeen, Tex.; six grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.