“Today, we gather to honor the life and service of Ralph,” said United States Marine Corps Maj. Maggie Jones at the funeral of a San Antonio, Florida, fixture, James Ralph Jones.

At the gathering before Memorial Day weekend, family, friends, neighbors, former employees, Marines whom Jones inspired and those from Tampa’s 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion came to honor one of their own.

Jones, who died at 89 of natural causes on May 13, joined the Marines as a teenager and served in the Korean War.

“Ralph took the Marine Corps motto of ‘Semper Fidelis’ and applied it to his life, his hometown, and his family,” said Maj. Jones (no relation) at the veteran’s funeral. “He never stopped serving his community and inspiring the next generation to serve just as he did.”

Jones, who spent three years in combat with the Marines, lived the rest of his life in San Antonio fulfilling a promise he’d made in battle.

Always faithful

San Antonio, San Ann for short, started as a German-Catholic community surrounded by citrus groves and cattle farms, many of which have since morphed into subdivisions and strip malls. With 1,300 or so residents, San Ann sits about 15 miles north of Wesley Chapel, close enough to St. Leo that residents can hear the bells of Saint Leo Abbey chime every 15 minutes.

“It’s essentially 1 square mile,” said Lou Rinaldi, who grew up in San Antonio.

And the Jones family was itself a San Antonio fixture.

Jesse Alexander Jones Sr., Jones’ father, established a sawmill on Curley Road. The six Jones sons all served in the military from World War II through Korea. Jesse, the eldest, served in the Army; Johnny in the Air Force; Bill in the Navy, and Jack, Virgil and Ralph in the Marines.

“The entire family were pillars of this community,” Rinaldi said. “And he was the last of that generation.”

Jones fought in Korea with his brother, Virgil. The two served in the same battalion, different companies. Jones did not think he’d make it home.

“If he ever made it home, he was going to buy as much property as he could and never leave San Ann,” his daughter, Linda Jones, said. “And he lived true to it.”

Ralph’s

Jones came home, started a family and did what he promised. He bought property. He started a real estate company. He maintained cattle. At one point, he owned four bars.

“He did a little bit of everything,” said Jones’ daughter.

That included serving as San Antonio’s mayor and sitting on the city council and on the city council of St. Leo.

Growing up, Jack Vogel and his friends assumed that, because Jones owned liquor stores, he’d be a softie as mayor. Then Vogel got in trouble and had to go before Jones, who also served as judge.

“He made me do hard labor at the church, pulling weeds in the garden,” Vogel said.

Unofficially, Jones “loved to pretend he was a bank,” his daughter said, helping his employees buy or rent homes and establish credit with the San Antonio Credit Union.

“He helped a lot of people get their first house,” said nephew Mark Jones. “He helped me get my first house.”

“He was pretty much beloved,” Vogel said.

With an array of business, land and positions, Jones was powerful but not pretentious.

He loved to eat dinner at his bar, and “if anything broke down, or he had to fix it, he wouldn’t farm it out,” said former San Antonio resident Richard Petri, whom Jones inspired to join the Marines. “He would do it himself. It didn’t make any difference how complicated it was. If he had to fix a pump to irrigate the orange groves he had, he’d find what it would take so he could do it himself.”

Jones loved to hunt and fish, though he never got much time for either. He was busy building in San Antonio. And what he built remains.

More than 20 years ago, Jones sold his namesake restaurant and bar on Highway 52. It’s now called San Ann Liquors and Restaurant.

Except by locals, Rinaldi said.

“They still say, ‘Let’s go to Ralph’s.’”

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