Military museum, fire taxes approved by Terrebonne voters
November 25, 2015
Boil water advisory for North Lafourche
November 30, 2015
W.B. “Bee” Jones Jr. was born in 1931 to Wiley and Marie Jones in Pelahatchie, Miss. Wiley was a carpenter and Marie a stay-at-home mom caring for their six children, of which Bee was the oldest.
Bee was a hardworking young man, always busy. As a teenager, he delivered newspapers and played on the high school football team. Always a dashing man, he was a heartthrob to his female classmates.
Bee joined the U.S. Air Force soon after graduation, eventually attaining the rank of captain and becoming a drill instructor.
When Bee completed his military service, he managed a bowling alley. He was a fantastic bowler, amassing a roomful of trophies and medals in the sport over his lifetime.
He and wife Pat Fujita had two children. Unfortunately, that first marriage didn’t last.
Not long after the divorce, Bee met his second wife, Francis Slaton. The two were on dates – both with other people – when they met by chance.
Francis’ date turned out to be a dud, so she went to hang out with her best friend, Paulette – the sister of Bee’s ex-wife. Paulette happened to be babysitting Bee’s children that night at his home in Jackson, Miss. When Bee and his date returned to the house to check on the children, sparks between Bee and Francis flew. Bee was immediately smitten.
“Oh, he was very romantic,” his daughter, Tricia Cannon, said. “He told the nurse at the nursing home, ‘The minute I saw (Francis), I said she’s mine.’ As soon as he met her, he knew that’s who he wanted to be with.”
Bee and Francis started dating and were married within two years. Each had two children from previous marriages, and raised three more together. Bee loved Jan, Tricia, Michael, Bobby, Richard, David and Neta with all of his heart.
He found work as a construction foreman, while Francis worked for Avon. She was a superstar saleswoman who often met ambitious sales goals and was rewarded with vacations. In 1969, she was transferred to the Houma office to become the regional manager and the family relocated to Bayou Country.
Within a week of moving to Houma, Bee set out to find the closest hardwood lanes. He walked into Jim and Shirley Crowley’s bowling alley, Houma Bowl, and asked if any league teams needed another bowler. There was a game that night and Jim happened to be short a striker.
“And it happened ever since then,” Shirley said. “It just progressed and we all got to be good friends.”
Bee bowled in countless leagues, Shirley recalled. Bowling was Bee’s passion. He helped with junior leagues and even gave youngsters free bowling lessons. When young people were bowling, he’d stop to watch, his friend said. If someone appeared to be struggling with the game, he would help them.
“I was raised in Houma Bowl,” Bee’s daughter, Neta Wright, said. The family bowled together often.
Bee was elected president of the senior league for the Bayou Region United States Bowling Congress Association. When his health began to deteriorate, he couldn’t bowl anymore and he stopped serving as president.
Bee suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, but he still wanted to be involved. So one day, his daughter, Neta, brought him in a wheelchair to a local BCA meeting and, to her surprise, the board voted her father president, again.
Even after the COPD diagnosis, Bee could be found at the bowling alley, ball in hand and portable tank of oxygen on his hip. He loved the game. The family is hazy on the details but one year, Bee was inducted in the Bayou Region USBC Association Hall of Fame.
Bee and Shirley often bowled together. The two qualified for the Senior Olympics in Florida, a major feat.
Just a few months ago, his health in sharp decline, Bee scored more than 200 points in three games in a row. Professional bowlers consider 200 points to be par, Tricia said, emphasizing Bee’s accomplishment.
By then, he’d been diagnosed with lung cancer, which eventually claimed his life.
Bee had only one love greater than the sport of bowling … his love for his family. He never missed his children’s or grandchildren’s games or events, and if any of them needed help, he was there. Friends and family agree it was just the type of man he was – the knowledgeable rock who fixed everything.
When Francis’ health declined due mostly to a lack of mobility, Bee had to find assisted living for her. His daughter Tricia recalls him crying uncontrollably because he wasn’t able to fix her health. His devotion to Francis was divine. To the very end, every morning, afternoon and evening, he was at her side, whispering sweet nothings in her ear. It was just the type of man he was. •
A military veteran and skilled contractor, avid bowler who shared his love of the sport with his family and youth, a passionate man who loved his family more than anything. W.B. Jones Jr. died at age 84 on Oct. 30, 2015.
