Glenn Jones Started UT As an Eager ROTC Participant

GLENN W. JONES, Jr.

1946-2015

Reminiscences & Accomplishments

Glenn Jones started UT as an eager ROTC participant. In the late fall of 1965 he had an epiphany, watching war protestors sitting on the big F-86 silver jet in front of the UT ROTC building. He quit the next day, and soon worked with SDS on projects from pie-throwing to Gentle Thursday.

In his teens, Glenn longed for and bought, with his paper route funds, a cherry red Gibson electric. With determination he learned, keen on twangy blues. He recalled being a shy nerdy guy in high school, but thought blues music would be good for meeting future girls. Acute stage fright, however, ended his music career. Though he did manage to leave his past image and become a man with many women.

In lieu of music, Glenn took to writing, and later, thanks to encouragement from Bill Bentley and Mariann Garner Wizard Vasquez, moving into journalism. Glenn wrote a few pieces on music for The Rag in the late 1960s, then was delighted to get a regular column, Local Roots, in UT’s campus paper, The Daily Texan. He later wrote for The Austin Sun / The Sun in the mid 1970s. In 2014 Glenn assembled those early writings into a collection alongside current reflections of then and now in his Clippings Book: 1966-1978, Music Journalism Adventures in Austin. (Lulu.com)

Tall and good looking with his dark curls—and never hesitant to take a risk, Glenn joined in a variety of Austin’s wild adventures with friends who would remain life-long pals and colleagues, some “frenemies,” plus more than a few co-conspirators. He gravitated to slightly older friends, especially the folkmusic scene and was fascinated by the then-fading Ghetto. Glenn took a circuitous path for a decade or so, too late to follow his Beats mentors, and too much of a cynic to be a Hippie, although taking inspirations from the Hippie-Seeker-Speculators written works. He tried some drugs, but didn’t find the secrets of LSD. Glenn soon recognized helived straddled two worlds in his sense of identity, not feeling a sense of belonging in either one. Later he wrote at length about “living in two worlds.”

That location, however, provided many an opportunity to “be in the middle” of good arguments at the Chuck Wagon. And amidst a lively pursuit of checking out where the edges of life were, he had the company of a series of beautiful women—the heart of Glenn’s story.

After the first rush of any romance dwindled, however, Glenn would be drawn back to his true love, his libraries—his ultimate sensory satisfactions and refuge.. True love indeed. Any library. Anywhere. Any book store. Ask anyone who knew him. Ambling the aisles, running his hands and eyes along the shelves. Intense, liminal absorption. Glenn was ever a bookish fellow, from grade school, especially in history, always taken to increasingly arcane and diverse reading and academics. Growing up in a military family in schools all over the world, new social challenges every two years or so, Glenn’s books and big black glasses, growing too tall and skinny by the age of ten, hewas a target for every school’s bully. He learned to hide his scholarly ways, camouflage them in ways that deflected ridicule or attack. Also, he once observed, staying in the library kept you “out of sight!”

In Austin’s ever romantic, challenging, andexploratory cultures, Glenn did a lot of “interesting” things which, he later declared, weren’t ultimately interesting at all. After a few too many brushes with big-time danger, “near death” incidents he described in his memoir—as when he was a criminal PI, or his lamentable “just plain stupid” inattention to the dangers of his surroundings—the romance of Beats’ “loser-life” truths of Kerouac and Bukowski wore off. He re-launched back into school.

Glenn eventually finished his BA at UT in Folklore/Anthropology, then was prodded on by his professors to take an MA. Glenn complained that he felt like a prize catch, their very own “native ethnographer” of the Sixties. He was reluctant to revisit old haunts, memories, painful points, and ghost-inhabited events, but finished a well-received thesis on Gentle Thursday, and published on the same in Sights on the Sixties (Barbara Tichler, ed. Rutgers U. Press, 1992). He also did some 1988-89 scholarly work on the Chuckwagon cultures, now in the Erwin Archives, Center for American History. Finishing his MA in 1988, Glenn was awarded the full-ride Warren Roberts PhD Fellowship at Indiana University, Bloomington; tempted and encouraged with big promises of blue skies and tenure. However, the academic turf battles over praxis and theories became meaningless to Glenn. He was convinced real ethnography wasn’t French theories but the observations of real, lived-life in action that was true anthropology—by early 1990s way out of academic fashion.

This fissure of departmental philosophy became total discouragement. Also, Glenn found he had the same ol’ stage fright he’d had with his twangy blues guitar efforts of the late1960s—he didn’t want to stand up and “pontificate before teenagers.” Nightmare! Glenn wanted more reality in his life and work, and missed Austin. In 1991 he chucked it all, returned to Austin, briefly tried a second Library MA, and started writing full-time.

Soon Glenn became immersed in visual arts, too, moving from word to color, passionately creating small to large works. He and his cat WhatNot, his reported muse, worked passionately on all sorts of art projects. Glenn claimed he was “channeling John-Michel Basquiat,” the late wildly break-out artist of 1980s.

After late 1998 Glenn spent about ten years being support for his parents during their age and illnesses. During that time he began writing again, and from late 1990s made good progress on several manuscripts. In 2008, Glenn claiming himself an orphan, he set about writing with determination. In 2012, after his cancer diagnosis, he turned to “writing with purpose,” to finish works and see his narratives in readable form.

Glenn was fortunate to be active until his last week, thanks to MDAnderson and good docs in Austin. Asked by a chaplain in Houston what he wanted his legacy to be, Glenn immediately responded, “My books! My writing” He expressed considerable satisfaction that his determined focus since 2012had resulted in several pieces being readable and in working draft form through Lulu.

Glenn was a fine writer, especially in his deft abilities to turn a tense narrative into pure hilarity. Sometimes just a low-key phrase, catapulting readers, or medical staff, or friends of 50 years into laugh-out-loud appreciation. That subtle humor was verbal as well, in timing and delivery, just a brief phrase, a word’s inflection—observed to turn daily-grind medical staff into collapses of laughter.

During Glenn’s last year he was working on a biographical and political work to honor his father and mother, the collision of their college dreams with WW2—to explore the generational legacies of broken, deferred, patched-up dreams.

Glenn’s mostly Irish ancestors took part in the 1900s’ new economic development of agricultural crops of Dry Land Cotton in West Texas. His grandfather taught school; the crops and life were good. Glenn’s father was a sports star in school, and soon at Texas Tech, before WW2. Glenn’s mother a tall beautiful Texas Tech coed. The Jones; dreams and family’s life were changed forever in 1942, as were most of the world. Glenn’s dad endured four-years as a POW on Bataan— roughly visualized in 1957 “Bridge Over the River Kwai” and awarded again 1997-- Documenting 30,0000 Dutch and Australian regiments with 800 Texans of “the Lost Battalion” enduring the long years of POW horrors beyond description.

Glenn termedhis planned biographical/historical project “Lived Ethnography.” He wanted it finished, and provided a long list of “to do and don’t do” about his intentions. Glenn’s project drafts, manuscript and research materials will be completed eventually, with the help of friends. Their efforts will be aided by family memories from Glenn’s well- brother, Mac Ed, with archives from his late younger brother, Jimmy, a fine musician on the Austin scene, on his own and with Roky, and from Glenn’s40+ year professor-friend, and his 30-year fellow anthropologist, loyal and true, “my’gal, ” plus a few other trusted old pals escaped from academe.

Glenn’s creative works:

My Gone Austin—Retrospective 1965-2015, his life and adventures, ethnography, with both poignant and hilarious perspectives, his Austin Follies. 2013, 2015 Lulu.com
Clippings Book: 1966-1978 Music Journalism in Austin, Texas. The Rag, The Daily Texan, The Austin Sun/The Sun, Rumors, Gossip, Lies & Dreams. 2012, 2013, Lulu,com
Hillbilly Ethnography: Further Follies in the Hoonyay-Cadoonyah Legends of Austin, Texas. One of a series, short essays about events and adventures in Austin. 2013, 2014 Lulu.com
Conqueroo! Hoonyah-Cadoonyah Series. Includes the high-tension legal events surrounding Jim Franklin’s famous Conqueroo mural. 2012 Lulu.com
UnHoly Ghosts—Hoonyah-Candoonya Series. Fictional tales of wild adventures, reportedly based loosely on the truth. 2012, 2013 Lulu.com
Why Are We In Texas? A dystopian fiction about the civil war that erupts after Hillary becomes Commander-in-Chief. Written as a story in 1996, then expanded in 2000, prompted by his political despairs. A few friends in 1996 suggested it was impossible, but nowadays, in 2016, his fictional chaos seem almost prescient—we can only hope for a better outcome than Glenn’s speculated nuclear spillage. First released in 2010, then withdrawn. Book is currently under 2ndrevision, following Mariann Vizard’s and Russ McGoodwin’s suggestion to Glenn that WASIT needs to be two books, not one. At Glenn’s request, once divided, it’s to be re-released soon, in part to honor Glenn’s posthumous shouted celebration of Baylor U’s removal of Ken Starr. Lulu. com

Academic works:

Sights on the Sixties: Ed. Barbara Tichler, Rutgers University Press, 1992. Glenn Jones, “Gentle Thursday: An SDS Circus in Austin, Texas, 1966-1970.”
Gentle Thursday: Revolutionary Pastoralism in Austin, Texas, 1969-1970. Students for a Democratic Society. Glenn Jones, Master’s Thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, 1988.
“Chuck Wagon: Austin’s Counter-Cultures as Emergent Oppositional Hegemony, 1986,” Glenn Jones, Department of Folklore, Anthopology, University of Texas at Austin. Graduate Conference Paper, Archives, Briscoe Center for American History, in The Frank Craig Erwin, Jr. Papers, 1986-1996, Box 45471, General Reference.

OBITUARY

Glenn W. Jones, Jr. age 69, of Austin and Waco, died Oct 7th, 2015, at home, with cats and companion and good music. Excellent help from Austin and MDAnderson doctors supported his good quality of life for almost four years. Glenn was active and engaged until the last day, listening to his and his late brother’s twangy blues guitar, cats around, shouting orders to his beloved “My’gal.”

Glenn was preceded in death by his parents, Glenn and Anita Sue McCreary Jones and his special little brother, guitarist Jimmy R. Jones, as well as his beloved cat WhatNot. He is survived by his sturdy ship-builder brother, Mac Ed Jones, sister-in-law Che, of Florida. He is also survived by several cousins, many good life-long friends, two ex-wives, a long-missed step-daughter, two nieces, plus his thirty-year trusted Martha Berryman, friend and companion, and life-friend and mentor Russ McGoodwin.

Cautionary tale:

As with many men, IFGlennhad sought medical help some years earlier, the original lung cancer would not have metastasized into his too soon demise.

A memorial to Glenn’s life will occur at a later date. Those wishing to attend, keep in the loop about Glenn’s archives and manuscripts, or share memories:

Martha Berryman, Cultural Anthropologist, partnered in graduate studies with Glenn Jones. She participated in several documentary projects, from Texas Historical Commission, biography, and museums. She will remain a link for the continuation and presentation of Glenn’s archives and publications.