John Wesley Claver Jones (November 12, 1949 – March 5, 1991), was an American television journalist. He was a native of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and the first African-American news anchor in the Philadelphia market. He first joined

WCAU-TV WCAU (channel 10) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Mount Laurel, New Jerse ...

fresh out of high school as a copy editor. While both continuing his education and working for channel 10 he first became a weekend booth announcer then rising in 1971 to reporter. It was said that

John Facenda John Thomas Ralph Augustine James Facenda ( ; August 8, 1913September 26, 1984) was an American broadcaster and sports announcer. He was a fixture on Philadelphia radio and television for decades, and achieved national fame as a narrator for N ...

recognized his talent and mentored him. He eventually rose to the position of 11PM news anchor, but was let go in favor of

Ralph Penza Ralph Penza (November 22, 1932 – February 16, 2007) was a senior correspondent and substitute anchor for WNBC in New York City. He first joined WNBC in 1980, left the station in 1995 and rejoined it in October 1997. Among his many honors are six E ...

in 1976. He then moved to

KYW-TV KYW-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside CW affiliate WPSG (channel 57 ...

, then

WLS-TV WLS-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on North State S ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. He returned to KYW-TV in 1983 and died at the age of 41 on March 5, 1991 of

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...

. The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia posthumously inducted Jones into their Hall of Fame in 2004.

References

External links

Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia: Jack Jones
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Jack American television reporters and correspondents Television anchors from Philadelphia Television anchors from Chicago African-American television personalities 1949 births 1991 deaths American male journalists Deaths from pancreatic cancer 20th-century African-American people