Loyal Jones, interpreter of Appalachian culture, dies at 95

Loyal Jones

Loyal Jones, whose Kentucky pastor called him "the indefatigable and beloved interpreter of Appalachian life and culture," died Saturday morning in Black Mountain, N.C. He was 95.

The author and co-author of several books and dozens of published articles about Appalachian culture, people and humor, Jones wrote about the resiliency of mountain people and their culture and said the region should be judged by its own values—family, land, and traditionalism—rather than mainstream values of accumulation, wealth and power, said Ron Eller, former director of the Appalachian Center at the University of Kentucky.

When he received the top award from the East Kentucky Leadership Foundation in 2017, Jones said, "We have a viable culture here. We have a lot of problems, but we have a lot of people with great values."

Jones, a native of western North Carolina, held degrees from the University of North Carolina and Kentucky's Berea College, where he ran its Appalachian center in 1970-93. It is named for him. Jones "had been diagnosed with cancer, and earlier this year had decided that he didn’t wish to continue treatment," center Director Chris Green, who is editing Jones's memoirs, said on Appalnet, the list-serve for Appalachian academics, whose discipline Jones helped create. "Despite this, he kept up correspondence, worked on his memoir, and was only occasionally down with his afflictions."

The Rev. Kent Gilbert, pastor of Union Church in Berea, wrote, "He loved good dry and wry humor, music of all kinds, a lively conversation, and was a craftsman, musician, and an appreciator of the arts in every form. Truly a man of many talents! A fierce champion for those whom the world had handed a bad hand, he worked hard against the causes of poverty and injustice. If he had impatience with anything it was the too-evident arrogant hypocrisy of politicians who said much but did little to improve other’s lives."

George Brosi, another Appalachian academic who lived in the same retirement community as Jones, wrote on Appalnet, "Nobody devoted more of their life to Appalachia than Loyal Jones, and he contributed as much as anyone to Appalachian studies. He set the tone for our field with humor, grace, integrity, erudition, and wisdom."