The sting of a Hornet, the heart of an angel

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This article was published 28/04/2018 (2713 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Audrey Jones was a teacher many students had — and she was the teacher the rest of us should have had.

Strict, confident, patient yet stern, and a stickler for details, Jones, who died 90 years to the day she was born on March 29, was a force to be reckoned with during the decades she worked as a teacher at Technical Vocational High School.

In fact, in the yearbook published the year Jones retired in 1985, there were a few more adjectives for her: “indomitable, indefatigable, formidable, indestructible.”

Jones, universally known by students as Miss Jones, walked through the front door of Tec-Voc in 1951, the first full year it was open, and went on to spend many long days, evenings, and even weekends there. Not only as a teacher, but as a coach for several of the school’s athletic teams and as the director of the school’s renowned handbell choir.

In fact, Jones was so respected for everything she did during her decades at the school that they renamed the gymnasium and music wing The Audrey Jones Field House in 2004.

At the time of the renaming, Jones was quoted in the Free Press, saying she loved teaching at the school so much that “I didn’t like Saturdays because it meant I wasn’t working.”

“Kids had a lot of respect then. A dirty look was all you needed, you never had to fight with them.”

Donna Chaisson, a student from 1963 to 1965, credits Jones as the main reason she graduated from high school.

“She was a memorable woman,” Chaisson said recently.

“She changed my life around in high school. When I was in Grade 11, my father passed away and she took me under her wing. She could tell I was struggling.

“She was like a mom to me. She was very strict — it was her way or no way — but I needed that at the time. She got me through. She got me there at a time when I could have faltered.

“I’ll never forget her.”

Chaisson recalls trying out for the cheerleading squad with a friend when Jones pulled her aside.

“Miss Jones tapped me on the shoulder and said she wanted to talk to me. I thought it meant I wasn’t making the cheerleading team and she told me sorry, you won’t be cheering for the team. When I looked crestfallen, she said you can’t be on the cheerleading team when you’re on the volleyball team.

“She loved all of us, but she didn’t like it shown.”

Gordon Crook, the school’s current principal, wasn’t there when Jones was a teacher, but he saw her many times over the years through her organizing of alumni events.

“She was totally involved in the school right up to the point she couldn’t anymore,” Crook said.

“I’ve never seen a teacher have the devotion and support that Audrey had. I think it is unparallelled in my experience… her name isn’t on the Field House by accident. There’s no other name on anything here.

“She’s the ultimate Tec-Voc Hornet.”

Jones was born in Winnipeg in 1928 and lived here her entire life.

She went to Laura Secord School, Gordon Bell High School, and then the University of Manitoba where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science and was named Lady Stick of the faculty.

During her years at high school and university, there are numerous articles detailing her athletic exploits, including her winning the 75-yard sprint in high school in 1944, her university relay team taking first place at the Western Canada Intercollegiate track and field event in Saskatoon in 1946, and coming first in the 100-yard dash at the annual University of Manitoba track and field meet in 1949.

Not surprisingly, given her athletic prowess, Jones spent most of her career as a physical education teacher before teaching mathematics during her final years. She also coached several of the school’s teams, including basketball, volleyball, field hockey and athletics, as well as being the choir leader for the Tec-Voc Handbell Ringers.

For many teachers, that would be enough time out of their personal lives, but Jones also trained cheerleaders and majorettes, choreographed and managed the school’s musicals, and served as chairwoman of the school’s 25th anniversary and graduation ceremonies from 1977 to 1984.

After retirement, Jones continued helping the school, creating the Tec-Voc Alumni Association in 1991.

The Tec-Voc Handbell Ringers were formed in 1966. After Jones took the helm in 1973, it “has maintained their reputation for excellent musicianship,” according to the notes on the back of an album produced in 1980. It was the choir’s fourth album.

Joanne Ilse (nee Boivin) and was a member of the 1980 handbell choir along with her older sister.

“She told us when she finds she has an exceptional group and an exceptional choir she wants to put out an album.”

Ilse said she looks at the cover now and remembers how they all thought the outfits they were wearing were “hideously ugly, but the picture captured Jones in her element.

“I still remember her with her hands up conducting — that’s the woman I know.”

When Ilse got married, she dug out her old album and walked down the aisle to Homecoming, one of the songs on it.

“(She) had such high expectations of all of (her) students, which taught us to have high expectations of ourselves,” she said.

Sue Boyce, who graduated in 1974 and was coached by Jones in track and basketball, said the teacher taught young women how to “dress with self-respect and conduct themselves with dignity.”

“I watched her many times tear a strip off the male jocks who were rude or publicly disrespected ‘her girls’. She taught young women, in a world that prides itself on making women feel inadequate, that we weren’t.”

Boyce said Jones would drive teams to games in her own car; afterwards she would drop the group off together at the same bus stop.

“She would also ensure everyone had the required bus fare and there were times when she provided it for players.”

Nephew Brian Jones said during visits with his aunt he and other siblings and cousins received a glimpse of what students would experience with her.

“We always knew she loved you, but she was unwavering of trying to steer us through life,” he said.

“She got everybody to play at the top of their game.”

Brian said he also knew what his aunt, who never married, would tell her athletic students if they were “difficult with her.”

“It’s my ball, my gym, and you’ll play by my rules. She was strict.”

Jones was predeceased by her parents, Percy and Elizabeth, and her brothers Lloyd and Ralph. She is survived by a niece and four nephews.

“The world definitely doesn’t sparkle quite as bright now that Tec-Voc’s superstar Miss Jones is watching from heaven’s finish line,” Boyce said.

“Thank you Audrey, for making a world of difference to young women who were lucky enough to get to know you.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca