Kenneth Delbert Jones and Erma Jean Newhouse

PART NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

KENNETH DELBERT JONES AND ERMA JEAN NEWHOUSE

Kenneth Delbert Jones was born on 17 May 1924, in Sioux City Woodbury, Iowa, the child of Donald Augustus Jones and Daisy Mae Bishop. He was born about two weeks before his parents married in Elk Point, Union South Dakota. His father was a young man of 20 and his mother who was 19 years was estranged from her first husband Cleo Phelps whom she divorced 7 March 1924 a few months before Kenneth D Jones was born.

Kenneth Delbert never knew his father’s family as that his father Donald Jones deserted his family when Kenneth Delbert was four years old. All of his paternal family had left Sioux City shortly after he was born and had moved to Southern California. He never knew that his Joneses family were pioneer farmers who lived primarily near Knoxville in Marion County, some 240 miles from Sioux City in south-central Iowa.

He was raised by his divorced mother and his maternal grandmother Jennie Bowman McPherson. His step grandfather Wallace McPherson was a buyer and seller in the Sioux City Stockyards and when the Great Depression hit in October 1929, McPherson kept his job throughout that economic calamity. His father Don Jones went to work at the government project of building Boulder Dam although it is doubtful his mother Daisy Bishop Jones would have ever knew much about where her ex husband drifted off.

The city in which Kenneth Delbert grew to manhood was generally a foul smelling place from all the slaughter houses nearby where he was raised and where his mother worked. Sioux City was a city built on the early growth of its stockyards. The Stockyards is an historically important district located along the original lower Floyd River channel. Formerly one of the largest livestock trading facilities in the world, the Sioux City Stockyards was also home to large meatpacking plants (or "packing houses"), including Armour and Company and Swift and Company, who employed 1000’s of residents. In its heyday, the Stockyards commercial corridor included the historic Livestock Exchange Bank as well as the offices of cattle companies, tack-and-saddleries, boot and western wear stores, lumber yards and hardware stores, restaurants and saloons. Trains transported livestock into town and fresh meat to market. Until 1923, nearly all of the livestock was delivered by rail. By 1928, however, trucks had taken over about 40% of deliveries, and by 1953, 99 % of all livestock deliveries were done by truck. Following the closure of most of the meatpacking plants, and of the livestock yards themselves, the area became inactive, with only a few small businesses remaining.

After his father divorced Daisy, Kenneth Delbert went to live with his grandmother in Sioux City, Iowa, when the 1930 United States census was taken. The 1930 Census enumerated the 5 year old Kenneth D Jones within family of his grandmother Jennie McPherson and her husband Wallace on 14 April at 1618 Eighteenth Street. Others in the household were Kenneth’s 25 year old mother Daisy Jones, his 15 year old half uncle Frank A McPherson, and his 62 year old great uncle Marion Bowman. Kenneth Delbert’s mother Daisy Jones was working as an elevator girl in a department store.

Kenneth Delbert Jones, as the only grandchild of Jennie McPherson, rode out the Great Depression better than most people during the 1930’s as his grandfather had a fairly decent paying job and his grandmother went to work in the Sioux City home for the blind. In 1932 Daisy Jones and Kenneth D Jones moved from his grandparents to 301 ½ South Wall Street near the Wall Street Mission in as she had found work at the Armour Meat Packing Company. They would live at this address until 1939 when his mother’s health began to fail. She was working as a trimmer in the slaughter houses during this time.

Kenneth Delbert was raised in poverty on the wrong side of the tracks in what was then called the South Bottom of Sioux City. He mainly lived at 301 ½ South Wall in the Wall Street Mission district. The Wall Street Mission at 312 South. Wall Street was .principally a shelter for the poor and derelicts. Here on this skid row his mother had to work to support herself and him. In 1923, Rev. John Perry Hantla brought the “goodwill” movement to Sioux City where it merged with Wall Street Mission as a service to the immigrant population in an area known as the “South Bottoms”. In 1929 the Wall Street Mission started a bread line for the hungry and unemployed.

The South Bottoms was a working-class neighborhood located west of the stockyards that was later destroyed to make way for Interstate 29 and a channelization project on the Floyd River. A South Bottoms Memorial was created in 1997 to honor the immigrants and families who made this area of town their home.

The South Bottoms was a small community nestled between Third Street and the Missouri River. The Sioux City neighborhood has long since been destroyed as a result of the 1957 construction of Interstate 29 and the channelization of the Floyd River in 1962. Hundreds of families were forced to relocate elsewhere. The South Bottoms was home to mostly poor, working-class families. Workers started moving to the South Bottoms area in the 1880s when the Sioux City Stockyards expanded to include packing houses and railroads.

In 1933 when Kenneth Jones was 9 Peter Callaghan and his wife Delores Jones Callighan moved into the former residence of his grandparents. Peter Callahan was working as a Bellman at the Warrior Hotel.

A major scandal erupted in Sioux City in 1935, two years after the Volstead Prohibition Act was repealed, when it was discovered that corrupt Iowa state officials—including the Iowa State Attorney General and leaders of the Iowa State Alcohol Control Board—were operating a profitable extortion scheme to offer "protection" to local Sioux City tavern owners in exchange for payoff money. The Attorney General was arrested, tried and convicted in the Woodbury County Courthouse. It seems that the legalization of alcohol only provided corrupt state officials waiting in the wings an opportunity to profit from Sioux City's profound love of alcoholic beverages—control over which had, until recently been the sole domain of organized bootleggers.

Kenneth Delbert Jones was 12 years old when he experienced one of the worst heat waves in North American history while living in Sioux City, Iowa. The 1936 North American heat wave was the most severe heat wave in the modern history of North America. It took place in the middle of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and caused catastrophic human suffering and an enormous economic toll. The death toll exceeded 5,000, and huge numbers of crops were destroyed by the heat and lack of moisture. The 1936 North American Heat Wave

The record heat wave baked the Midwest in early July 1936. The temperature reached 100°F and above for a record eleven consecutive days from July 5 to July 11. People had to cope with the extreme heat without the benefit of air-conditioning. The all-time high and high minimum temperatures for the quad cities were recorded on July 14th when the mercury reached a sizzling 111°F and only dropped to a low of 84°F. It The heat and stench in the city must have been unbearable.

In 1938 Kenneth Jones’ grandparents, Wallace and Jennie McPherson, moved to 1810 South Cypress where they rented a house. Boarding from them were Peter Callaghan and his wife Delores. It was probably about this time that his mother Daisy Jones became involved with Peter who was still married and working as a bell boy at the Miner Hotel.

When Kenneth Jones was 15 years old, the 1939 Polk Directory showed that both the McPhersons and the Callaghan’s were living at 1810 South Cypress Street. His mother Daisy Jones may have been living there also as she is no longer listed in the directory. If so the following persons were living at that residence, 51 year old Wallace McPherson, 54 year old Jennie McPherson, 24 year old Frank McPherson, 39 year old Peter Callaghan, 34 year old Delores Callaghan, 2 year old Gayleen Callaghan, 35 year old Daisy Jones and 15 year old Kenneth D Jones. Peter and Delores must have separated for a time as the directory also lists Delores as a waitress renting a room at 708 4th Street.

Kenneth Jones’ mother Daisy Jones may have been ill for some time and the hard work she did as a trimmer in the slaughter house probably contributed to her death on 5 May 1940 of heart disease at the age of 36. His grandmother Jennie McPherson was the informant on Daisy’s death certificate and she stated that Daisy was the wife of Peter Callaghan. The 1940 United States Census which was taken on 9 April nearly a month before Daisy died and listed Peter and Delores as married. The Callaghans were still living at 1810 Cypress Street and included in their household was Daisy’s 15 year old son Kenneth D Jones whom Peter called his “stepson”. Daisy is not listed in the 1940 census and was probably in the hospital. The family was so poor however they could not afford a marker for Daisy’s grave but she was buried near her grandfather James Bowman.

Kenneth Delbert’s mother died 12 days before his 16th birthday and he probably went to live with his grandmother so he could finish high school. Peter Callaghan and Delores had split up after the death of Daisy and Kenneth’s “stepfather” left the state for Jolliett, Illinois. Both his grandparents were working, Wallace still as a salesman for the Stockyard Commission and Jennie McPherson was working as an assistant to the Sioux City School for the Blind. Kenneth Delbert Jones’ half uncle Frank McPherson left home in early 1940 when he married which left Kenneth the only dependent left in the household of his grandparents.

Kenneth Jones was 17 years old when American entered World War II after Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 1941. During the war years, he lived with his grandmother at 1810 Cypress Street and finished High School. At the age of 18 years Kenneth Delbert enlisted in the army on 17 March 1943 at Camp Dodge, Iowa. He was sent to Georgia for basic training at Camp Wheeler. A fellow member of his Company F wrote “when we got there we got off and it was nice warm breezes blowing, there was a military band playing out there… and it really felt like a great improvement…, but in a few days we began to get acquainted with a few things like chiggers and ticks and Georgia clay and try to dig holes in it and it lost a lot of its glamour in a hurry.” From Georgia Kenneth Delbert was put on a troop and shipped to Camp Claiborne, in Louisiana and assigned to the 84th Division.

At the age of 20 he was sent overseas to fight in the European Operation of the war in the 333rd Infantry of the 84th Division which embarked on 20 September 1944 and arrived in the United Kingdom on 1 October, for additional training.

“We went from Camp Claiborne by train to Camp Kilmer which was kind of a gathering place for people going out the New York port of embarkation. Then we stayed there about a week until the whole Division had gathered and then we went to New York and we were put on a bunch of different ships. I was on the S.S. Alexander which was an old German liner and I heard that we were supposed to land at Cherbourg but at that time there was too much traffic at Cherbourg with supplies and everything so we ended up going up through the St. George Straits and into Firth of Clyde and landing in Scotland and then we came down from Scotland into England to a camp near Winchester. We stayed around there for about two weeks, again, until the whole Division gathered and we did training marches but mostly it was just to keep us occupied. It wasn’t really training in the true sense. Then we were shipped down to Southampton and got on another ship and went to Omaha Beach. Omaha Beach of course was not a lot of shooting at that time. Thank heaven it had already been done.”

The division then landed on Omaha Beach, 1–4 November 1944, and moved to the vicinity of Gulpen, the Netherlands, 5–12 November. The division entered combat, 18 November, with an attack on Geilenkirchen, Germany, as part of the larger offensive in the Roer Valley, north of Aachen.

“We got into combat in November of ‘44. Some of the units were -- one of our regiments was detached and was assigned to the 35th Division which was up on the line and a company from our battalion was assigned to the 30th Division up on the line so they got there a little ahead of the rest of us but most of us ended up going in the 17th or 18th of November, got into the shooting war. We were thrown into what many considered the nastiest section of the whole front at that time. So we went by truck up into from Galene at night and we drove into a border town Marianburg it’s right on the Dutch-German border. We got in this town, of course it’s completely dark and we’re in this truck with the tarp over the top and not knowing what was ahead of us and all of a sudden artillery opened up and we didn’t know it at the time but it was an American artillery outfit that was within 100 yards of where we were.”

On 19 November, the division as part of Operation Clipper pushed forward to take Beeck and Lindern in the face of heavy enemy resistance. After a short rest, from 29 November to 18 December the division had returned to the fight, taking the Siegfried Line before being pulled back to Belgium during the German winter offensive of the Battle of the Bulge. Battling in snow, sleet, and rain, the division threw off German attacks, recaptured Verdenne, during 24–28 December. The December 1944 Ardennes Offensive resulted in 19,000 U.S. deaths, 47,500 wounded and more than 20,000 captured or missing in action.

By 16 January 1945, the Germans were in retreat and after a 5-day respite, the 84th resumed the offensive and assumed responsibility for securing the Roer River zone, On 23 February 1945, the division cut across the Roer River. The 84th reached the Rhine River by 5 March where they trained along the west bank of the river until crossing the Rhine on 1 April.

In conjunction with the 5th Armored Division, the 84th capture the town of Hanover on 10 April and liberated two concentration camps. As such, the 84th is officially recognized as a "Liberating Unit" by both the U.S. Army's Center of Military History and the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

By 13 April, the 84th had reached the Elbe, and halted its advance, within 25 to 40 miles of Berlin. Thousands of German soldiers were fleeing across the Elbe to the surrender to the American rather than to Soviet troops which were contacted on 2 May 1945. World War II in Europe officially ended with the unconditional surrender of Germany on 7 May 1945. The 84th division remained on occupation duty in Germany after VE-day, until returning to the United States on 19 January 1946 for demobilization.

“It turned out that that was one of the roughest January’s they’d ever had. The captain of the ship said he’d sailed on the Atlantic 50 years and the weather was the worst he’d ever seen. It was really stormy and we were hearing tales of these little liberty ships that were in distress nearby all the way across. But, again it took about ten or eleven days to cross the Atlantic and I was one of the fortunate ones who was not subject to sea sicknesses. It was pretty miserable on that ship. Particularly so because we were in the holds, way down at the bottom of the ship--an officer in a stateroom but I don’t know if that was any better. You can still get sea sick up there. Down in the hold you were with hundreds of men packed in very tightly and sea sickness is kind of a contingent sort of thing if one guy starts heaving, everybody starts heaving. It was unpleasant but it was kind of an experience too to see what the Atlantic could be when it was really nasty.”

In 1945, Kenneth’s grandparents had moved from 1810 Cypress to 1022 Douglass Street. Here was where Kenneth Delbert Jones came home to Sioux City in 1946. The 1946 directory is not available but the 1947 directory listed Jennie and her husband at 1022 Douglass and she was an assistant supervisor at the Work Shop for the Blind. By the end of the year Kenneth Jones’ step grandfather Wallace M McPherson died on 2 December 1947 three days before his 60th birthday. He and Jennie had been married 30 years when he died. There’s no record of a burial in any of the Sioux City cemeteries.

There isn’t a record of Kenneth Jones in the 1947 Polk Directory for Sioux City but there is for 20 year old Erma Jean Newhouse who was working as a telephone operator for Sears Department store. She and her married brother Richard Newhouse had recently returned to Sioux City from Austin, Minnesota. Their parents Louis O and Edna Newhouse had been killed in an automobile accident in May of 1947. Their bodies were brought to Sioux City where they were buried.

The exact date of Kenneth D. Jones and Jean Newhouse’s marriage has not been discovered but the 1948 Polk Directory listed them as living at 622 Jackson in Sioux City. He was a whole salesman for Standard Oil. There’s not a 1949 Polk Directory to be searched but a data base of those receiving an Iowa Bonus Check for military service included Kenneth D Jones as living in Sioux City in 1949.

In May 1947, the Iowa Legislature had approved bonus payments of up to $500 for men and women who served on active duty in the U.S. armed forces between 16 September 1940 and 2 September 1945. To qualify, applicants had to be legal residents of Iowa for at least the six months prior to their service. Along with name, birth date and place, place of residence for six months prior to enlistment or induction, and address where a check could be sent, forms may provide a wide variety of details related to the applicant’s service. On May 18, 1949. Kenneth D. Jones received a bonus check of $410 from the state of Iowa for his service in World War II. His address was still given as 622 Jackson.

On December 14, 1949, the Swift & Company packing house, located north of the Sioux City Stockyards and adjacent to the Floyd River channel, suddenly exploded, killing 21 Swift employees and ninety one were injured. The cause of the disaster was never fully confirmed, but the explosion was believed to have been caused by a leaking gas pipe that heavily damaged the stockyards.

In 1950 Sioux City had a population of about 84,000. However the Polk  Directory does not list the family of Kenneth Jones or his grandmother the widow Jennie McPherson. It is not clear why he was not included as that in August 1951 he and Jean had their first child a son named Kenneth Louis Jones born in Sioux City.

Kenneth and Jean Jones were living at 3518 West Sixth street in the spring of 1952 when the Floyd and Missouri River rushed out of their banks and inundated downtown Sioux City. On March 31, the Floyd River rose to a 20.3 crest north of town. This was the highest in fifteen years. The Springdale area had to be evacuated. The storm sewers back up, causing flooding along Stueben Street and south to the Soo's ballpark. Things were about to go from bad to worse. The Missouri River was also on the rise.

In early April, predictions of a possible 17-foot depth were made for the Missouri River. The citizens began watching their levees, which protected the city from the river's rise. The levees were built to hold back the river to a depth of 19.4 feet. Then, the full extent of the problem was learned. The new prediction was for the Missouri to rise above the previous prediction, all the way to 22 feet. Riverside residents especially in the South Bottoms were warned to evacuate due to the rise, which would have them in "water to their waists". Finally the levee west of South Sioux City collapsed and all the land between the river and Crystal Lake was covered with river water.

When the river crested April 14 at 24.3 feet, it had pushed the Sioux River out of its banks flooding Riverside Boulevard and from Goldie Avenue south to Riverside Park. All business came to a standstill. The stockyards were closed, the packing plants damaged, and the sewer system taxed to it's limit. All of South Sioux City lay under water. Nearly the entire population was evacuated near the Floyd and Missouri Rivers

When the river subsided, the damage was assessed at $3,264,000. This figure does not take into account the toll of human suffering that took place with the devastating damage done to people's homes in both Sioux City and South Sioux. . It was in the aftermath of the 1952 flood that numerous cases of polio were reported in Sioux City and throughout the tri-state area.

Polio flared up in Sioux City after the flooding. The summer of 1952 was particularly bad after the floods had disable the sewage system. Due to the compromised water supply, polio cases began to climb, filling the city's hospitals. The hospitals procured 11 iron lungs to treat the patients who had paralysis of respiratory muscles. By July 17, there had been 12 polio deaths. In August 1952 Bob Hope. Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Jack Dempsey visited the children in polio wards. In all, Sioux City reported 952 polio cases that year and 53 deaths. The polio epidemic hit this region of the country especially hard and lasted until a vaccine was developed to combat the disease in the late 1950s. 1952 was the worst of the polio years but the outbreak of polio in Sioux City would have been a contributing factor for Kenneth and Jean to move from Iowa to California.

On June 8, 1953, the Floyd River again flooded when a torrential downpour in the Sheldon, Iowa area sent a wall of water down into the lower valley. A swift moving wall of water approached the city and by 11:00 that morning, on Floyd Avenue, only the tops of cars could been seen. Volunteers came from all over town to help rescue stranded people. 41st Street, a gravel road, was on higher ground and not flooded. This was the only way for people to enter or leave the area. Fourteen people lost their lives. This flood was a major impetus for the Floyd River flood control project, including the building of a straightened, rock-lined channel and high levee through the city. The flood-prone "South Bottoms" neighborhood was razed for this project in 1962 and all the homes that the Jones’ and Mcpherson’s had occupied were gone.

The city's water supply was damaged by the flood of 1953. Several pumping stations were flooded and unusable in the days after the flood. The city was placed under severe water restrictions. People caught breaking the rules had their water shut off until the damage was fixed. At one time, the city was down to four hour's supply.

This was probably the last straw for Kenneth D Jones and in 1953 he relocated his family to Long Beach, California where his half uncle Frank McPherson had moved and whether he knew it or not where his father Donald A Jones brothers were living including his paternal grandmother Emma Selena Jones. He would never have known these people.

The 1955 directory for Long Beach listed Kenneth and Jean Jones as living at 1922 Junipero Avenue in the Signal Hill area of Long Beach. He was about 31 years old and working for Arlo’s Refrigerator Service as a mechanic. His grandmother Emma S Jones in 1955 was living at 56 Claremont Avenue 4 miles southeast in Long Beach off of Ocean Boulevard. His uncle Earl D Jones lived at 2735 Eucalyptus Avenue in Long Beach about 3 miles west near the Los Angeles River and his uncle Lloyd L Jones lived at 1444 Coronado Ave in Long Beach just about 1 miles southeast of Junipero.

Kenneth and Jean Jones had their second child while living in Long Beach. Their daughter Deborah J Jones was born 3 July 1956 in Los Angeles County. The following year in 1957, the Long Beach Directory showed the family still living at 1922 Junipero Avenue and Kenneth as a mechanic for the Arlo Refrigerator business located off of Alamitos.

On 22 May 1957 Kenneth Jones bought a home built in 1954 at 2141 Cerritos Avenue in Anaheim, California about 13 miles west of Junipero. It was a 1,112 square foot 3 bedroom, one and a half bathroom house on a 7,314 square foot lot. He moved his family there and lived in this home for the next 23 years. His children attended Magnolia High School.

Kenneth D Jones worked for Arlo’s Refrigerator Repair and Service shop until about 1963 when he went into business for himself. He started up a business called Ken’s Refrigerators Service located at 1127 East 10th Street in Long Beach. In 1966 Kenneth and Jean were registered as Republicans as part of California’s Voter Registration. By 1968 Kenneth Delbert Jones had relocated his business to Obispo Avenue, still in Long Beach, California and it was listed as Ken’s Refrigerator Service in the phone book.

When he was 45, Kenneth D. Jones’ estranged father died 18 March 1970 in Los Angeles. A grave site had not been located for his father. Kenneth D. Jones two children married in the mid 1970’s. Kenneth Louis Jones married Donna Fay Williams Pierce on 13 February 1975 in Santa Ana, Orange, California. She is the daughter of Edgar Hugh Williams and Wilma June Johnson of Garden Grove. Donna was a divorcee previously married to Terry John Pierce. Deborah J Jones married Randall “Randy” Irvin on February 14 in 1976 in Orange County.

Kenneth Delbert Jones died on June 20, 1980, at the age 56 at Los Alamitos General Hospital , in Los Alamitos, California. The cause if death was liver cancer which he had been diagnosed with in 1979. His widow Erma Jean Newhouse, was the informant on the death certificate. She gave as his occupation “mechanic Refrigeration Repairman Self employed SS 481-20-7280.” He was buried 24 June 1980 at Fairhaven Memorial Lawn Santa Ana, California. No more is known by me about Jean Newhouse Jones. If she is living she will be 90 years old in December 2017.

The home of Kenneth D Jones at 2141 Cerritos was valued 8 August 1980 at $155,000. In 2016 it was valued at close to a half a million dollars.

Children of Kenneth Delbert Jones and Erma Jean Newhouse

1. Kenneth Louis Jones

Born 22 August 1951 Sioux City, Woodbury, Iowa,

Married 13 February 1975 Santa Ana, Orange County, California

Donna Fay Williams daughter of Edgar Hugh Williams and Wilma June Johnson

Born 25 June 1949 Amherst, Lamb, Texas

2. Deborah J Jones

Born 3 July 1956 Los Angeles County, California

Married 14 February 1976 Orange County, California

Randall Irvin

Born 1954