Ranger Exes Memorial - RHS Class of 1960

Sharron Jones SHARRON O'DONNELL JONES was killed in a 1983 plane crash. She was a 1960 graduate of Ranger High School in Ranger, TX and married Jerry Jones before finishing high school. Air Crash-Tragedy Strikes Family Two Roswell residents killed in the crash of a single-engine airplane north of El Paso late Wednesday night (Aug. 17, 1983) were returning from Arizona after collecting an insurance settlement from the death of their son, who died in a motorcycle accident outside Hobbs last month. The victims were Jerry Jones, 41, and his wife, Sharron, 39. Their grandson, Robert, 4, and a family friend, Elizabeth Alley, 11, also were killed. The airplane crashed near a dirt airstrip north of El Paso and authorities found nearly $40,000 in cash at the site. The Jones couple operated a lounge in Roswell, police said. Their son, 22-year old John R. Jones, was killed instantly July 8 on U.S. 62-180, 20 miles outside of Hobbs when he attempted to pass a car and collided head on with an oncoming vehicle. Jones was riding a motorcycle at the time of the accident and was not wearing a helmet. The Piper Cherokee in which his parents and the two Roswell youngsters were passengers on Wednesday was enroute from Deming to Roswell when it crashed. The wreckage was spotted early Thursday morning by the Civil Air Patrol. The crash site was about 100 yards west of the Sky Sport Air Strip, a privately owned dirt runway used by parachutists and glider pilots. Col. Eric Shollmann, El Paso squadron commander of the CAP, said a search and rescue satellite picked up signals from the plane's emergency locator transmitter at about midnight Wed. and the wreckage was located at about 6 a.m. Thursday. County medical examiners at the crash site found in the wreckage a vinyl bank bag from an Arizona bank containing $39,400 in bundled $100 bills. An El Paso County sheriff's dispatcher said the Roswell couple had been in Phoenix, Ariz., to receive the insurance settlement. Tommy Garner, a friend and former business associate of the Jones family in Carlsbad, said the couple went to Phoenix to collect about $40,000 in insurance money from Jones' death. The plane was rented out of Roswell, and left Phoenix at noon Wednesday, Schollmann said. Jesus Aguilera, flight service supervisor for FAA, said Jones took off from Phoenix Wednesday afternoon and landed in Deming to refuel. He took off from Deming between 5 and 5:30 p.m., Aguilera said, adding that it takes about one hour to fly from Deming to El Paso. He said the crash probably occurred "late Wednesday afternoon or early evening." No flight plan was filed but the pilot inquired about El Paso weather in Phoenix, Aguilera said. The plane plowed 100 feet into a brush area, Schollmann said, and wreckage was scattered for another 100 feet. The bodies of three of the victims were found inside the wreckage and fourth was thrown out. The crash site was on the normal air route to El Paso International Airport, Schollmann said. It is hard to say whether the pilot intended to land at the airstrip or El Paso International, he said. "If he (the pilot) was looking at the strip in an emergency situation, he would have been talking to the tower (at El Paso International)," Schollmann said, "But there was no communications with the tower." Motorcyclist Killed In Crash with Car Lea County recorded its seventh highway fatality at 9:30 Friday night (July 8, 1983) when a Carlsbad motorcyclist hit a vehicle head-on and his right leg was torn off at the hip. Killed instantly on US 62-180, 20 miles west of Hobbs was 22-year- old John R. Jones, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Jones of 917 Albert Street, Carlsbad. Associate Medical Investigator pronounced Jones dead at the scene. The cause of death was listed with state police as massive injuries and dismemberment. Jones' cycle, a 1979 Suzuki, struck a 1974 Cadillac operated by Thomas A. Czarnecki, 21, of El Paso who had been traveling west. Czarnecki and his passenger were not hurt. According to State Police, the cyclist, eastbound, pulled out of the eastbound lane to pass one or more vehicles and collided head-on with Czarnecki's vehicle. The cyclist was thrown from the cycle to the pavement, according to the report, after which he slid 60 feet along the road and off the north side of the highway, losing his leg enroute. According to the report, Jones was killed instantly. A Hobbs ambulance was called to the scene but personnel did not take the body to the hospital. Petterson Funeral Home was notified and personnel transported Jones to the funeral home. Jones was not wearing a helmet but had one been worn, it would not have prevented the fatality. He was born March 19, 1961, in Carlsbad where he was reared and had lived all his life. Jones was a sheet-metal worker in the oil field industry. News clippings provided by Voncille Wells Williamson (RHS-1960).