Career
She was inducted into the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame in 2007. In her 1940s heyday, young Helen Elizabeth Jones was in the top female jazz band in the United States. She started playing with the group when she was only 11 years old, when it was still the "school band" of Piney Woods Country Life School in Mississippi.
Her father, Laurence C. Jones, founded the school in 1909.
After the band dissolved in 1947, Jones moved to Omaha and worked as a licensed practical nurse at Douglas County Hospital. Upon graduating, he became the first African-American to earn an accounting degree there.
Wood"s fourth child is Cathy Hughes, a successful business entrepreneur from Omaha. Today, Jones Woods lives in North Omaha.
Helen"s father: Lawrence Jones
Helen and William"s daughter: Catherine Elizabeth Woods (b 22 April 1947, Omaha, Nebraska).
