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Love Perry Jones : 1907 - 1998
By STUART D. LUMAN
OAKLAND - Love Perry (L.P.) Jones, 91, lost his eyes and
his arm in World War II, but spent the rest of his life
giving to his West Oakland Community.
Jones died March 31 at the Embassy Club, which he found
and ran for 50 years in West Oakland. Even at 91, Jones
still worked at the club. He was serving drinks when he
died of a heart attack, according to his cousin Henry
Delton Williams.
"He was just an amazing man," Williams said.
"He was one of the last veterans in the
neighborhood."
He lost his eyes and his right arm in World War II, when
the ship he served on was bombed by the Japanese.
Floating in the South Pacific Ocean amid twisted metal,
burning oil and the dead, Jones was saved by a rescue
ship on its third trip through the debri. He was on of
only 13 sailors who survived the attack and was at first
thought dead until he groaned in pain, according to his
98-year old sister Clara Jones of Oakland.
Born in 1907 on a small farm in Natchiotches Parish in
Louisiana, Jones grew up with his sister. Ms. Jones
remembers her brother as a baby when she often took care
of him and she remembers his nickname, "Lovey."
"As
a boy growing up on the farm, he was always
independent," she said of his early years growing up
in the South. He left home at 15.
A memorial service for Jones was held at Hudson's Funeral
Home. Services were open to the public and Lenny Williams
of "Tower of Power" performed at the service.
Burial was at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland.
"I don't think anyone can take his place, everybody
knew LP because he has been part of the neighborhood for
50 years," Betty Warner said, a close friend of the
family. "Everyone loved him, that's all you can
say."
The Embassy Club, spoken of in the same breath as Slim
Jenkins and other big-time jazz clubs from the forties
and fifties, is still one of the last establishments from
the old West Oakland jazz scene on Seventh Street. The
area at that time was known for its vibrant night life
and jazz. The club is still located on 10th and Wood
Streets and was part of what Williams called "the
Broadway Stroll," which included Esther's Orbit
Room, which is still open today.
Before the war, Jones worked in Freeport, LA in a glass
factory. Like many other African-American men who came to
Oakland during the war years, he came to work on the boat
docks. He was a longshoreman before being drafted into
the Navy during World War II and saw action in the South
Pacific on the U.S.S. South Dakota before it was bombed.
Jones was a member of the Blind Veteran's Association for
many years and traveled across the country attending
their conventions. As a serviceman he received the Purple
Heart and the Gold Star.
Jones is survived by: his sister Clara Jones of Oakland;
his brother Alex Jones, 90, of Texas; his daughters Mary
Hale of Los Angelos and Nettie Marie Alfred of Oakland;
nine grandchildren and several nieces, nephews, aunts and
uncles.
His son Love Perry Jones Jr. died previously as did his
wife of many years Carrie Lee Jones, who died in 1989.
"He was a wonderful man and died doing what he
wanted to in the cafe," said Alice L. Stamper, his
long-time companion. "He really did good, nobody
went hungry in the community. He never published that and
no one knew except those in the neighborhood."
An
edited and much shorter version of this appeared in the
March 1, 1998 Oakland Tribune
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