[5] When Jones' father was unable to pay his medical bills, he began doing odd jobs for Dr. Finis Ewing Wyatt, the local country doctor.

On May 22, 1980, Congresswoman Marilyn Lloyd of Tennessee welcomed Jones into the "grandparents club" with an address on the House floor shortly after the birth of his only grandchild, Meghan Elisabeth Kinnard.

He created an Assistant Commissioner position to oversee the administrative operations so that he could focus on strategic issues involving animal health vaccination and inspections, artificial insemination for breeding dairy cattle, establishment of a surplus food distribution program for schools, food safety inspections, and agricultural disaster response.

[2]: 7–8 In 1961 President John F. Kennedy appointed him chairman of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service state committee for Tennessee.

[2]: 9 [4] In March 1969, Jones won the Democratic nomination for a special election to replace Robert "Fats" Everett, Congressman from the 8th District in Northwest Tennessee, who had died in office.

The other two candidates almost split the vote evenly in the March 25 contest; Jones won with a substantial plurality and was sworn in as soon as the results were certified.

To avoid a primary election, Blanton ran, unsuccessfully, for the United States Senate against Republican Howard Baker.

Jones retained his seat easily even as Richard Nixon won 90 of Tennessee's 95 counties, including most of his district.

In 1976, Martin businessman and state representative Larry Bates, an associate of high-profile East Tennessee banker Jake Butcher, ran against Jones in the Democratic primary.

He ran well to the right of the moderate Jones and spent a large amount of money by the standards of rural West Tennessee at the time.

They include 121 linear feet of paper files organized in five series, Correspondence, Legislation, Projects, Committees, and Public Relations.