Delphine Jones

Delphine Brady came into this world as a twin on July 17, 1936, in Eudora, Arkansas, to Ruby Brackens and James Brady. Delphine (Del) and her twin sister, Beatrice (Bea), were the oldest children of their mother, Ruby, and the only children of their father, James. Del and Bea grew up in Eudora with their mother and younger brothers, Jeremiah and Benjamin. Their mother's aunt, Ellen Cole, helped raise them.

Delphine started working at a young age as a sharecropper alongside her family. When the farming season was over, she and her siblings would attend school. She often visited her paternal grandmother Bertha Brady as well as spent time with many cousins, including Luvenia, Helena, Aslee, and J.C., as well as a childhood friend, Mary Jane. Del accepted Christ as a teenager and was baptized and attended St. Peter Missionary Baptist Church in Eudora.

Delphine visited her mother's sister, Alice Wilkerson, in Chicago as a teenager where her aunt wanted her to move there to attend beauty school, but she decided to return to Eudora to graduate with her class. Del graduated from East Side High School in Eudora in 1957. When Del and her siblings were teenagers, her mother married Alex Hopes, and they had four more children: twin boys, Thomas and James, and daughters Gloria and Joyce.

Delphine moved to Chicago in 1959 at the request of her sister Bea. They stayed with their aunt Alice on Warren Boulevard in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on Chicago's west side. Del met James Jones, who was from her hometown, at a party through his cousin, Ora Mae. They married a few months later. Shortly after, her twin sister married as well. Del and her husband, James, along with her sister Bea and Bea’s husband, Silas Williams, moved into Aunt Alice’s apartment when she relocated. They lived together, helping one another out, and eventually purchased a two-flat building in the Austin neighborhood on Lamon Ave in 1966.

The mother of three children, Delphine initially stayed home to care for her children (Billy, James, and Linda) as well as helping care for her twin sister Bea’s children (Leon, Marvin, Gwen, and Glenda) while Bea, Silas, and her husband James worked. Del eventually went back to work at various jobs including a dress factory, Woolworth's, Presbyterian St. Luke in the laundry department, and at Frazier Elementary School as a lunchroom cook. Delphine never forgot her love for doing hair and eventually went to beauty school to get her license in 1970. Del did hair at her home for years and also sold butter cookies and cakes. She later worked part-time at Ca’Shaun beauty shop owned by fellow church member Lucy Holmes for almost 30 years. In 1981, Delphine started working at Cook County Hospital in the dietary department until she retired in 2001.

Delphine loved her children Billy, James Jr., and Linda, and her husband James Sr. deeply. She and her family would take trips down south back to their hometown Eudora, as well as trips to visit family in Detroit and Memphis. She loved her church home, Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church, and joined in 1959. While at Mount Sinai, she served on the decoration committee and the choir. In her free time, Delphine read her Bible, phoned family, tended to her garden, and played the piano. Del loved to bake, cook, and eat and always welcomed people into her home to feed them. A loving grandmother, she also spent time with her grandchildren, as they stayed over her house on weekends.

Delphine and her husband James were together until his death in September 2019, just a few months shy of their 60th wedding anniversary. Delphine Jones, of Chicago, IL, passed away peacefully on July 20, 2024, in LakeZurich, IL, just three days after her 88th birthday.

Delphine is survived by her three children: Billy (Corrine) Jones, James Earl (Elise) Jones Jr., Linda Faye (Wythe) Crowe; nine grandchildren: Latoya Jones, Omari Jones, Shawn Crowe, Shashawna Crowe, Sharnea Simmons, Jarrett Rucker, Jasmine Jones, Jalynn Jones, and Praise Djansi; and four great-grandchildren: Gabriel Gilhooly, Ma’Laysia Johnson, Marshawn Thompson, and Marlo Thompson. She is also survived by her siblings: Benjamin (Myrtle) Clark, Thomas Earl Hope, James Earl Hopes, Gloria Hopes, and Joyce (Steve) Pigee. Additionally, she leaves behind a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, and in-laws.

Delphine was preceded in death by her husband, James Jones Sr.; her parents, Ruby Brackens Hopes and James Brady; her twin sister, Beatrice Williams; her brother, Jeremiah Weathersby; her grandparents, Virginia and William Brackens, and Bertha and Robert Brady; and her nephew, Leon Williams.

Delphine’s life was a testament to her resilience, kindness, and joyous spirit, and she will be deeply missed by all who knew her.