Rhubarb Jones, country radio personality, dead at 65

Rhubarb Jones at his annual celebrity charity golf tournament in 2008.

Rhubarb Jones at his annual celebrity charity golf tournament in 2008.

Rhubarb Jones, popular Atlanta radio host and country music personality, died of a heart attack Sunday in Haralson County. He was 65.

Jones, affectionately called “Rhuby” by his friends, was a morning host at country station Y106 and then Eagle 106.7 from 1985 to 2008. He was currently senior development officer at Kennesaw State University, where he also taught and helped the school launch its football program.

Before coming to Atlanta, Jones worked on radio stations in Bremen, Columbus, Asheville N.C. and Montgomery. Jones was the king of country at Y106 in the 1980s.

Jones also ran a celebrity golf tournament for more than 18 years for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, raising more than $3.5 million. Before that, he did something called the March Across Georgia to raise money for the same group, collecting pennies wherever he went.

Warren “Rhubarb” Jones was born in Miami but grew up in the small town of Tallapoosa, 57 miles west of downtown Atlanta, which he always talked about with affection. He returned to Tallapoosa in 2006, after living in East Cobb, to live on the street where he grew up.

The town renamed the street Rhubarb Lane.

Other honors included induction in the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame and the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame.

He is survived by two daughters, Presley and Callie, and two sons, McCoie and David.

Miller Funeral Home in Tallapoosa is handling funeral arrangements.

Read and sign the online guestbook for Rhubarb Jones

RELATED

Read AJC writer Rodney Ho’s appreciation of Rhubarb Jones