[1] Jones was born in the small farming community of Niagara in Henderson County, Kentucky, the youngest of 10 children in a sharecropper's family.

[6] Jones spent his teenage years in Akron, Ohio, where he began singing country music tunes on a radio show on WJW.

In 1931, Jones joined the Pine Ridge String Band, which provided the musical accompaniment for the Lum and Abner show.

His recording career was put on hold when he enlisted in the United States Army during World War II.

His more famous songs include "T For Texas," "Are You From Dixie," "Night Train To Memphis," "Mountain Dew," and "Eight More Miles To Louisville."

A musical segment featured in the early years had Jones and "his lovely wife Ramona" singing while ringing bells held in their hands and strapped to their ankles.

A resident of rural Ridgetop, Tennessee, outside Nashville, he was a neighbor and friend of fellow musician David "Stringbean" Akeman.

On the morning of November 11, 1973, Jones discovered the bodies of Akeman and his wife, Estelle, who had been murdered during the night by robbers.

He died at 7 p.m. Central Time on February 19, 1998, at the McKendree Village Home Health Center in Hermitage, Tennessee at age 84.