Margaret Clark Jones

Margaret Clark Jones, beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, wife and artist, passed away on Saturday, November 15, six days shy of her 91st birthday.

Margaret was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania to Edwin DeForest Clark and Margaret Davis, the second-oldest of four children. Love of music ran deeply through her family. Her father, a graduate of Eastman School of Music, was a talented pianist, church organist and choir director. All four siblings—Louise, Margaret, Mary and Walter—learned to sing and play piano as children during their peripatetic childhood in Rochester, New York City and Wilmington, North Carolina. Margaret carried her love of music with her the rest of her days, instilling it in her family and singing in her church choir for much of her adult life.

Margaret taught art to middle schoolers briefly before the birth of her children. She left teaching once she became a mother, but continued to pursue her lifelong love of painting. Her work was exhibited locally in several shows during her life, including exhibitions at the Orange County Historical Museum, Saladelia Cafe and Croasdaile Village. She also served as a docent at local art museums including the Duke University Museum of Art.

Central to Margaret’s life was her devotion to family.

She was an art student at Women’s College of North Carolina (now UNC-Greensboro) when she said yes to a blind date that would prove critical to her life’s course. Margaret — the pretty, shy, reflective art student — was quickly taken with the warm, quick-witted, gregarious medical student she met that evening. The pair played ping-pong at the WC campus recreation center before dining at the K&W Cafeteria. Morris Alexander Jones, Jr., known to the world as Pete, married Margaret on Thanksgiving Day, 1957. This Thanksgiving would have marked their 68th wedding anniversary.

Margaret and Pete raised three children, Alison, David and Mark. Margaret was a devoted mother to all three, encouraging their various pursuits in music, dance, sailing and sports. She served as a leader of her daughter’s Girl Scout troop and, with Pete, volunteered to lead the group on a backpacking trip along the Appalachian Trail — despite never having been backpacking herself. She wove art and music into her children’s daily lives, whether instructing them in seashell collage construction or filling the house with the strains of classical concertos.

Margaret was a voracious reader and a formidable Scrabble player who loved well-crafted fiction, early Renaissance art and Andrew Wyeth, Handel’s “Messiah” and “The Sound of Music,” roadside picnics and country churches. She had an infectious laugh, and nothing amused her more than the exploits of her grandchildren. “Bama” was beloved in turn by Madeleine, Kiersun, Kylan, Tyler, Logan and Aerin.

Margaret also placed great value on character and always rooted for the underdog. Reared in the Presbyterian church, Margaret remained a lifelong Presbyterian. She and her husband Pete attended Westminster Presbyterian Church from its earliest days, when the young congregation met in a Durham school auditorium. Margaret remained a devoted member as Westminster grew into an important community resource, joining with others in providing some of the first aid for Durham’s homeless. She served as an elder and founded the church’s Global Outreach committee, which has supported Ukrainian refugees, a school in Haiti and hurricane relief work in western North Carolina, among other efforts.

Autumn was Margaret’s favorite season, and the month of November had special resonance for her. Born on a November day in 1934, married in November 1957, she completed the circle of her life in November 2025.

In her later days, as Alzheimer’s disease robbed Margaret of so much, certain defining qualities persisted, shining through the fog. Music still moved her, church services provided moments of beauty and comfort and she held her family close.

A few weeks before she died, when words were starting to elude her, Margaret attended a Sunday service at Croasdaile chapel. She could barely keep her eyes open during the service. Yet when the minister came to her side, she opened her hands to receive communion.

Even when her memory became blurry and language slipped away, she remained crystal clear about the identities of every member of her family. 

In her final days on this Earth, as friends and family members visited and called her, her response was written on her face: She knew their voices. She heard and treasured each one.

The people she loved were what mattered most to Margaret. That remained true until her last breath.

***

Margaret will be laid to rest in a small family ceremony at Bluestem Conservation Cemetery. A memorial service for her will be held in the spring.

Margaret is survived by her husband Morris Alexander Jones, Jr. of High Point, N.C.; her children Alison Jones of Hillsborough, N.C., David Jones of Atlanta, Ga. and Mark Jones of Atlanta, Ga.; her grandchildren Madeleine Brown, Kiersun Jones, Kylan Jones, Tyler Jones, Logan Jones and Aerin Jones; her great-granddaughter Amaluna Jones-Mendez; and her nieces and nephews Katherine Call, Michael Reville, Steve Reville, Beth Blackwelder, Nathan Sadler, Chris Strausz-Clark, Karen Sporn, and Margaret Ellen Tyler. She is preceded in death by her siblings Walter Clark, Louise Sadler and Mary Tyler.

In lieu of flowers, those wishing to remember Margaret are encouraged to donate to Westminster Presbyterian Church or Doctors Without Borders.