Mary Jo had four children: Linda Anne Jones (b. 1948), Pamela Sue Jones Indo (b. 1949), Karen Lee Jones Langridge (b. 1951), and William David Arledge (b. 1954). She died when her son was only seven years old.
Her daughters remembered her as a remarkably loving mother who took them crabbing and swimming at the Galveston beaches, took them to church, and attended their ball games. She always hugged her children hard.
In Goree, Texas, her brother Charles trained her when young to be competitive in track, volleyball, and softball. In a strict household of educators, especially Granny Farris, who lived with her daughter and son-in-law and their children---Mary Jo was regarded as rebellious. She and her siblings usually attended Sunday services at one Protestant church and mid-week youth services at another. Her father sent her to Denton, Texas, to be educated at the all-female Texas Women's University there.
She left that institution very early to marry a high school classmate named Dalton Jones, who proved brutal and untrustworthy. After their first divorce and soon after the birth of their third child he brought a Baptist preacher with him to persuade Mary Jo to marry him a second time. At the Arnold family's request, Dalton got a vasectomy before the second marriage.
She met her second husband Billy most probably when she was a psychiatric patient and he was an employee at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston. Upon her marriage to Billy, her very young daughters were returned to her after having been cared for by various relatives including their Uncle Charles and Aunt Mary Alice Arnold in Houston. She used psychiatric services for severe depression and worked as a secretary of the Jack Tar Hotel in Galveston until her death.
She used a secretly purchased handgun for her suicide. Her suicide by gun mimicked the death of her uncle Johnnie Welch Arnold (1904-1955).
Despite abandonment of family through suicide, Mary Jo left expectations for her children. At her death their modest home in Galveston received about a dozen magazines each month and held new editions of an adult encyclopedia and a children's encyclopedia. Her children were involved in school, softball, baseball, swimming and Scouts. They attended Central Christian Church, a Disciples of Christ church, most Sundays and were baptized there as preteens. They were free to explore Galveston on foot and by bicycle and bus.
Mary Jo's last words to them in her suicide note exhorted them to treat other people as they would wish to be treated (The Golden Rule). She wrote that she loved them.
Karen Jones Langridge
Her daughters remembered her as a remarkably loving mother who took them crabbing and swimming at the Galveston beaches, took them to church, and attended their ball games. She always hugged her children hard.
In Goree, Texas, her brother Charles trained her when young to be competitive in track, volleyball, and softball. In a strict household of educators, especially Granny Farris, who lived with her daughter and son-in-law and their children---Mary Jo was regarded as rebellious. She and her siblings usually attended Sunday services at one Protestant church and mid-week youth services at another. Her father sent her to Denton, Texas, to be educated at the all-female Texas Women's University there.
She left that institution very early to marry a high school classmate named Dalton Jones, who proved brutal and untrustworthy. After their first divorce and soon after the birth of their third child he brought a Baptist preacher with him to persuade Mary Jo to marry him a second time. At the Arnold family's request, Dalton got a vasectomy before the second marriage.
She met her second husband Billy most probably when she was a psychiatric patient and he was an employee at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston. Upon her marriage to Billy, her very young daughters were returned to her after having been cared for by various relatives including their Uncle Charles and Aunt Mary Alice Arnold in Houston. She used psychiatric services for severe depression and worked as a secretary of the Jack Tar Hotel in Galveston until her death.
She used a secretly purchased handgun for her suicide. Her suicide by gun mimicked the death of her uncle Johnnie Welch Arnold (1904-1955).
Despite abandonment of family through suicide, Mary Jo left expectations for her children. At her death their modest home in Galveston received about a dozen magazines each month and held new editions of an adult encyclopedia and a children's encyclopedia. Her children were involved in school, softball, baseball, swimming and Scouts. They attended Central Christian Church, a Disciples of Christ church, most Sundays and were baptized there as preteens. They were free to explore Galveston on foot and by bicycle and bus.
Mary Jo's last words to them in her suicide note exhorted them to treat other people as they would wish to be treated (The Golden Rule). She wrote that she loved them.
Karen Jones Langridge
Mary Jo had four children: Linda Anne Jones (b. 1948), Pamela Sue Jones Indo (b. 1949), Karen Lee Jones Langridge (b. 1951), and William David Arledge (b. 1954). She died when her son was only seven years old.
Her daughters remembered her as a remarkably loving mother who took them crabbing and swimming at the Galveston beaches, took them to church, and attended their ball games. She always hugged her children hard.
In Goree, Texas, her brother Charles trained her when young to be competitive in track, volleyball, and softball. In a strict household of educators, especially Granny Farris, who lived with her daughter and son-in-law and their children---Mary Jo was regarded as rebellious. She and her siblings usually attended Sunday services at one Protestant church and mid-week youth services at another. Her father sent her to Denton, Texas, to be educated at the all-female Texas Women's University there.
She left that institution very early to marry a high school classmate named Dalton Jones, who proved brutal and untrustworthy. After their first divorce and soon after the birth of their third child he brought a Baptist preacher with him to persuade Mary Jo to marry him a second time. At the Arnold family's request, Dalton got a vasectomy before the second marriage.
She met her second husband Billy most probably when she was a psychiatric patient and he was an employee at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston. Upon her marriage to Billy, her very young daughters were returned to her after having been cared for by various relatives including their Uncle Charles and Aunt Mary Alice Arnold in Houston. She used psychiatric services for severe depression and worked as a secretary of the Jack Tar Hotel in Galveston until her death.
She used a secretly purchased handgun for her suicide. Her suicide by gun mimicked the death of her uncle Johnnie Welch Arnold (1904-1955).
Despite abandonment of family through suicide, Mary Jo left expectations for her children. At her death their modest home in Galveston received about a dozen magazines each month and held new editions of an adult encyclopedia and a children's encyclopedia. Her children were involved in school, softball, baseball, swimming and Scouts. They attended Central Christian Church, a Disciples of Christ church, most Sundays and were baptized there as preteens. They were free to explore Galveston on foot and by bicycle and bus.
Mary Jo's last words to them in her suicide note exhorted them to treat other people as they would wish to be treated (The Golden Rule). She wrote that she loved them.
Karen Jones Langridge
Her daughters remembered her as a remarkably loving mother who took them crabbing and swimming at the Galveston beaches, took them to church, and attended their ball games. She always hugged her children hard.
In Goree, Texas, her brother Charles trained her when young to be competitive in track, volleyball, and softball. In a strict household of educators, especially Granny Farris, who lived with her daughter and son-in-law and their children---Mary Jo was regarded as rebellious. She and her siblings usually attended Sunday services at one Protestant church and mid-week youth services at another. Her father sent her to Denton, Texas, to be educated at the all-female Texas Women's University there.
She left that institution very early to marry a high school classmate named Dalton Jones, who proved brutal and untrustworthy. After their first divorce and soon after the birth of their third child he brought a Baptist preacher with him to persuade Mary Jo to marry him a second time. At the Arnold family's request, Dalton got a vasectomy before the second marriage.
She met her second husband Billy most probably when she was a psychiatric patient and he was an employee at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston. Upon her marriage to Billy, her very young daughters were returned to her after having been cared for by various relatives including their Uncle Charles and Aunt Mary Alice Arnold in Houston. She used psychiatric services for severe depression and worked as a secretary of the Jack Tar Hotel in Galveston until her death.
She used a secretly purchased handgun for her suicide. Her suicide by gun mimicked the death of her uncle Johnnie Welch Arnold (1904-1955).
Despite abandonment of family through suicide, Mary Jo left expectations for her children. At her death their modest home in Galveston received about a dozen magazines each month and held new editions of an adult encyclopedia and a children's encyclopedia. Her children were involved in school, softball, baseball, swimming and Scouts. They attended Central Christian Church, a Disciples of Christ church, most Sundays and were baptized there as preteens. They were free to explore Galveston on foot and by bicycle and bus.
Mary Jo's last words to them in her suicide note exhorted them to treat other people as they would wish to be treated (The Golden Rule). She wrote that she loved them.
Karen Jones Langridge
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