John Rufus Jones

Deceased: 12 December 2014

Under: Obituary

In Memoriam ~ John R. Jones December 12, 2014

Tim Barger

John and Lola Jones were among my parents' closest friends in Arabia - they were practically family. Their son Jeff and I grew up together, John rode horses with my mother at the Hobby Farm and fished the Third Reef with my dad. Young and vivacious, Lola was maybe the most beautiful woman in Dhahran and thick as thieves with my mother when they conspired to raise money for relief of the Palestinian refugees.

John Rufus Jones passed away at his home in Liberty, Missouri on December 12, 2014. He was 92 years old. At 24, he began working at a tank farm for Standard of California- at the very bottom of the food chain. His job was to enter enormous, drained oil storage tanks, survive the heat and noxious ethers, to clean off the sides of years of accumulated tar, wash it to the slippery floor thick with layers of heavy oil squeezed into sludge and squeegee the accumulated mess out of the tank for recovery. He survived and transferred to Aramco three years later to begin a long, satisfying career in Dhahran working in Government Relations.

His claim to fame happened in 1956 when he was cast as the young King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud in the film The Island of the Arabs.

"For some reason, likely economic, the decision was made to cast the film with Aramco employees and so it came to pass that thirty-four-year-old John R. Jones of Government Relations was chosen to portray the young Ibn Saud. He was apparently selected because he was lean and tall enough - Abdul Aziz was six foot, three inches, and he knew how to ride a horse. I'd add that John was, and is, a handsome fellow as a leading man should be.

"The raid on Riyadh sequence was staged at a decrepit fort in Hofuf provided by Emir Saud bin Jiluwi, the governor of Al Hasa. He also provided the hordes of extras from the ranks of his bodyguards and various retainers as well as the horses from his personal stables. On John's first day on the set, he and the director Dick Lyford went to select John's horse from the thirty or so horses available. Being a visual artist Lyford cared nothing about the horse's handling characteristics, only what it looked like, so he choose a fine-looking four-year-old mare named Azeema.

"The grooms brought out a thin, flimsy Arabian saddle, put on an old bridle and, gamely enough, John mounted the horse. Unfortunately no one had mentioned that Azeema had never been broken and the second that John hit the saddle, she took off in a streak before he could even put his feet in the stirrups.

"John couldn't control Azeema at all, it took everything he had to just hold on, as she bolted out of the stables and through the streets of Hofuf, people scrambling to get out of the way, as John and the mare came barreling by. Galloping through the date palms and across vegetable gardens and back again into the streets with John bouncing around, desperately hanging onto Azeema's mane for dear life. Finally after about a half an hour she tired out and John was able to ride her back to the stables where he was met with a great cheer from the assembled crowd. Now the mare was broken and he made the entire movie riding Azeema. He grew so fond of her that he tried in vain to buy the mare after the filming." Aramco Expats, July 28, 2012.

Saudi Arabian television broadcast Island of the Arabs every National Day for 20 years and it's funny to realize that a whole generation of Saudis grew up thinking that Ibn Saud looked like John Jones.

John had a great love of poetry and a wonderful voice for reciting it from memory. Most any time I could call him and ask him to reel off a few stanzas. A few years after his lovely wife Lola had passed away, he was probably in his mid- 80s, John called me excitedly to relate a dream he had.

In high school, Emil, a classmate of his, had some sort of palsy, so John used to stop on his bike on the way to school to give this kid a ride-otherwise it'd take ages on crutches. This family lived on the second floor of a small apartment building, but the parents were sort of strange, so if John arrived before Emil was ready, he had to cool his heels on the landing. There was a door and a not-recently painted wall decorated with a framed, fading poster of some poem that he idly read.

John was excited because in his dream he was standing in the hallway waiting for Emil to emerge, and in the dream he zoomed into the faded poem and suddenly realized that he knew every word-that he had subconsciously memorized it those many years ago. It was a bit magical as he recited the verse in his measured baritone.

When Earth's last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried,
When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died,
We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it - lie down for an aeon or two,
Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall put us to work anew!

And those that were good shall be happy:  they shall sit in a golden chair;
They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comets' hair;
They shall find real saints to draw from - Magdalene, Peter, and Paul;
They shall work for an age at a sitting and never be tired at all!

And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame;
And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame,
But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as They Are!

The poem was called L'Envoi, written by Rudyard Kipling. I can easily visualize John Rufus splashing at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comet's hair.

John is survived by his three sons: Randy, Jeff and Stephen, his grandchildren, great grandchildren and a large family of friends who are richer for having known him.

Condolences may be sent to the Jones Family
317 Seaport Circle
Liberty, MO 64068