Ulysses Jones Obituary

Ulysses Jones attended Northside High School in Memphis, TN. View the obituary, post a memory, or share a photo about Ulysses Jones.

Graduation Year	(unknown)
Date of Passing	(unknown)
About	Funeral for state Rep. Ulysses Jones draws crowd.Hundreds of political colleagues, fellow firefighters and friends gathered Monday at a funeral service for state Rep. Ulysses Jones, who was compared by Memphis Mayor A C Wharton to the early disciples of Christ. "We were blessed that he had a calling, but the calling and the day job intersected," Wharton told the crowd, saying that just as the disciples were also workers, Jones remained a firefighter, even while he served as a legislator. As a firefighter, "he was accustomed to walking into the heat of the battle ... and he used those skills in the legislature," Wharton said. "And while he was a fighter, he was a fierce negotiator -- he was multidimensional," he said. Jones was 59 when he died Nov. 9 at Methodist Le Bonheur Germantown Hospital of complications from pneumonia. He joined the Memphis Fire Department in 1973 as a firefighter/paramedic. He was first elected to the state House in 1987 to represent District 98, which includes North Memphis, Raleigh and Frayser, and was unopposed in his re-election Nov. 2. The father of two and a graduate of North Side High School who attended the University of Memphis and Tennessee State University, Jones was also the first vice president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. Memphis Fire Director Alvin Benson noted the state approval of the Fire Department's self-run paramedic education program as an example of help provided by the representative. "The city benefited because of Battalion Chief Ulysses Jones," Benson said. Firefighter Thomas Nolan, on his way in to the church for the service, described Jones as a "father figure" who "gave me good advice" when Nolan was a new firefighter at the Union Station in Memphis. The pallbearers were members of the North Memphis Roundtable, an informal association of state, local and county officials. Roundtable member Shep Wilbun, a former member of the Memphis City Council and Shelby County Commission, referred to Jones as "a gentle giant," who epitomized the concept of "walk softly and carry a big stick." Jones, a Democrat, served a dozen years as chairman of the powerful State and Local Government Committee, through which legislation that could affect state and county governments passed before going to the floor. State House Speaker Kent Williams, R-Elizabethton, said, "I can't name a representative I have more respect for than Ulysses Jones."