Love Endures

Luther M Jones, son of Frank Francis M and Mary Frances “Fanny” Jones, was born southwest of Sumner, Lawrence County, Illinois, May 23, 1892. He married Elva Corrie May 25, 1918.

He had been married just a few weeks before he was called into the Army and sent to Camp Taylor, Kentucky, living with his new bride only one month and three days. Elva saw her brown-eyed, blue- eyed sweetheart again in August 1918 at Indianapolis.

Luther was transferred overseas to France about the middle of September, 1918. Two days before he died, Private Jones of Co. I, 22 Engrs, wrote a letter to his Uncle John in which he stated; “I hadn’t seen very much of this world yet, but have seen enough of Army life to make me want to live a truer Christian life than every before for we know life is very uncertain at best.”

Luther Jones died in a Detention Hospital at Gondrecourt-le Chateau, Dept de la Meuse, Lorraine, France on November 4, 1918, aged 26 years, 5 months and 11 days, of spinal meningitis. A letter from his nurse to his wife stated that “he was willing and ready to exchange his home in this world for a home prepared for him in the glory world.” He was given a military funeral, attended by the First Battalion, Company Commander, Lieutenant A. B. Glenn, 5 sergeants, and 124 privates. He was laid to rest beside one of his comrades in a cemetery in France.

A tombstone was placed in the Ridgley Cemetery, Lukin Township, Lawrence County, honoring him, and where his wife of just a few weeks, would be buried beside him in 1991.