John P. Jones Jr.

John P. Jones, Jr, or Johnny as he preferred to be called, passed away September 11, 2022. Funeral service will be held at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery on Monday October 24th at 3:15 pm.

Johnny was born May 28, 1943 to John P. Jones (Pete) and Doris Madeleine (Thompson) Jones, who both preceded him in death.

He is survived by wife Linda Morris Jones; son, Rocky Monroe (Nicole); daughters: Wendy Robyn and Danielle Potteiger (Stefan), stepson Andrew Dillon (Kim); his sister Nanci Vineyard; brothers in law: Roger Morris, Paul Morris, Mike Morris (Barbara), Keith Morris (Marcy). He was also blessed by 8 grandchildren: Madison, Montana, Troy, Madison, Makenzie, Rylee, Shane, Sophia; and 1 great grandchild, Charlee; and a host of loving nieces, nephews and friends.

He was extremely proud of all of his children and the things they have accomplished on their own merits, regretting the time he missed with them.

He had a truly unique sense of humor and was continually the entertainer. He was a very generous person, a gifted musician, die-hard Dallas Cowboy devotee, and had an artistic eye.

He went out fighting, as was his way. He became interested in martial arts while in the Marine Corps. He began studying Kung Fu while living in Ohio. It wasn't until much later in life, while living in League City, that he began studying Taekwondo. He studied for a short time with Al Garza where he attained orange belt. When he moved to Waco he continued with Taekwondo and under rigorous training of Luis Suarez and Domingo Ramos achieved Black Belt rank at age 43. After moving to Victoria, he continued to train with Ralph Jaschke, compete in tournaments and achieved 4th degree rank.

Encouraged by his wife he began teaching self-defense classes and developed his own style of kickboxing – Kardio Taekwondo. His KardioTKD classes were extremely therapeutic and popular. He taught at various venues in Victoria and Houston until age 64 when his joints forced him to stop kickboxing. But he never stopped working out every day and continued his passion for fitness throughout 4 joint replacements. His brothers in law called him the bionic man.

In his later years, he was finally able to talk more about his military service. Instead of being poorly treated, as they were coming back from Vietnam, suddenly everywhere he went, people were thanking him for his service. It even helped his PTSD to improve somewhat.

At age 17, full of teenage angst, he quit sports, band, gave up his full music scholarship and enlisted in the Marine Corps. He was deployed on both 1st and 2nd Anglico teams as the radio operator, parachuting into the jungle to direct air operations and support. He spent time on bases in Hawaii and Guantanamo (Cuba) and from there flew to Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. Once their team was stranded in the jungle for a month. Because the classified missions occurred while the US was only in “advisory” capacity, he was not eligible for any medals even though he was in combat situations. Thankfully, he fared so much better than most and his active duty was up just before things got really terrible. He loved that 2 of his children also serve(d) in the military.

The last few years his health dramatically declined, but he started fishing with other veterans and friends and it brought him much joy and many new friends. A celebration of life will be held at a later date at the Indianola Pier.

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