Captain Frank Jones

Captain Frank Jones was brother to my grandmother Anna Klima, formerly Anna Jones. I was born in St. Louis but my parents moved to Dallas when I was about 2 years old. I remember Uncle Frank well because we traveled to St. Louis at least once a year to visit the relatives. My dad and I would go to the fire station to see Uncle Frank. He was a great person who loved his job and was a dedicated fire fighter. Wish I could have known him longer.

Frank passed away six years before I was born, but I remember my now deceased father, Harry Jay Jones, Jr., talking about his "Uncle Frankie."  I would hear stories as a child in the 1960s of how Frankie was a St. Louis firefighter, how he was killed responding to a call, and how much my father missed him.  

For years I didn't really know who "Frankie" was, but recently I have discovered photos thanks to the help of a distant relative I met on Ancestry.com.  I now have rediscovered the story and photos of my long lost uncle.

As a former U.S. Navy engineer and firefighter myself, I have a deep appreciation for Uncle Frank's WWI service as a U.S. Army corporal and in leading the men of Company 36 of the St. Louis Fire Department on that fateful day in September 1955.  RIP Uncle Frank.