Viola R. Jones, 85, of Bowman, ND, formerly of Buffalo, SD, passed away on Monday, October 10, 2011 at the Southwest Healthcare Long Term Center in Bowman.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, October 14, 2011 at the St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Buffalo. Fr. David Morman and Fr. John Heying will con-celebrate the Mass. Burial will be follow in the Buffalo Cemetery. There will be a Rosary and Scripture Service Thursday, October 13, 2011 at the Krebsbach/Kulseth Funeral Home in Bowman beginning at 7:00 p.m.

Viola R. Jones
Vi was born the sixth of eleven children on June 28, 1926 on the Carlo and Rosella Giannonatti ranch southeast of Ludlow, South Dakota. She attended Buffalo High School where she graduated at the age of sixteen, and promptly moved to Rapid City, where she graduated from Rapid City Business School at the age of 18.
She moved to Portland, Oregon during the Great Depression and WWII. She welded ships in the ship yards during the war, and worked for an airline that flew cargo from the west coast to Alaska, and for Vi, it was a time of independence and freedom that she truly enjoyed. When she learned that her mother was dying, she abandoned her life in Portland and returned home to help on the ranch and raise her younger sisters.
She married Clarence V. Anderson on May 17, 1951 and in 1952 their daughter Mona was born. Clarence died in a farming accident just prior to the birth of their son Steve in 1953. Vi then began working for Peterson Implement in Buffalo, doing accounting for them and also for other businesses and individuals to support her young family.
In 1956, she married Henry Jones and together they had four children, John (1957), Jen (1959), Carla (1962), and Beth (1967). She also helped raise her stepson, Bob, from Henry's first marriage to Lousie Lermeny, who passed away in 1953. She cared for her father Carlo, and Hank's father in their home for many years.
Hank and Vi purchased Jones Store from Hank's parents, John and Janet Jones, which was opened in 1924. All of their kids worked side by side with their folks in Jones Store learning the hard way so many lessons that would carry them through life. Vi and Hank, with the help of their family, ran the store for nearly 40 years, until it was sold in 1993, and the couple retired. Vi loved reading, and going to coffee and playing cards with her friends at the Oasis, at least until they wouldn't let her smoke there anymore.
Vi was known for her fabulous baking skills. Altar Society bake sales meant Vi would be up all night long baking loaves of bread, her famous lemon meringue pies, and cinnamon rolls. Friends would come to the house before dawn the morning of the bake sales to snipe their "reserved" pies before the bake sale.
Known to her family but to few others, was her kindness to anyone in need. She would often take home-cooked meals to those incarcerated in the Buffalo Jail (located across the ally from Jones Store) and would say, "those people need a good meal too." She and Hank would feed drifters who passed through Buffalo and would frequently give groceries to those who had no money to buy them, and routinely overlooked shoplifters who needed a meal. Sunday dinners at the Jones home meant the local priest would always be sharing in the meal and frequently many of the widows and widowers around town would be joining also. Their kids recall running all over creation picking up and returning their Sunday guests to their respective homes.
Vi was a strict and devoted parent, enforcing her rules without question, while maintaining a loving relationship with all of the children in their blended family. Vi instilled in all of her children the importance of hard work, service to God and to the community, and the importance of education to their success in life. Vi had the ability to provide just the right support for her children and community at just the right time. Her deep faith helped her through many of life's difficult trials.
Vi enjoyed spending family get-togethers over Memorial weekends at the cabins in Spearfish Canyon. This was a time when her whole family would come together for food, fun and laughter. She would prepare the menus weeks in advance. No one really knows if it was the family, the Canyon, the anticipation, or the food, but Vi made it a special time that we will always remember.
Vi had a very dry sense of humor, which never left her, even after her strokes. She was known at Southwest Healthcare Services for inappropriately speaking her mind and rolling her eyes… at just the right time. Vi loved her God, her family, and her Marlboro Lights 100's.
Vi was preceded in death by her first husband, Clarence (Bud) Anderson, her husband Henry Jones, her daughter, Beth, her grandson, Christopher Combs, and her granddaughter Stevie Beth Kulseth. She is survived by her children: Robert (Lorea) Jones and their children Amanda and Trevor, Mona Humphrey (Don Hopwood) and her children Brandy and Brian, Steve (Sherri) Anderson and his son Jonathan, John (Anita) Jones and their children Christine, Benjamin, and Rebecca, Jennifer (Steve) Wild and her children Shannon and Kellie, Carla (Patrick) Kelly and their children Kaitlyn, Megan, and Erin. She is also survived by four great-grandchildren.

Krebsbach/Kulseth Funeral Services in charge of the arrangements.