A Mother’s Memorial - Roadside park along Highway 63 preserves the legacy of Maude Hall Jones

The Maude Hall Jones Roadside Park sits along U.S. Highway 63 north of Ashland. The small Boone County park was established as a memorial to Maude Hall Jones, who was selected Missouri Mother of the Year in 1953. Courtesy of Jeremy P. Ämick.

A stone monument at the Maude Hall Jones Roadside Park displays a tablet honoring Missouri Mothers of the Year. Jones received the state honor in 1953, a year before her death. Courtesy of Jeremy P. Ämick.

Thousands of motorists travel U.S. Highway 63 through Boone County each year, passing a small roadside park a few miles north of Ashland. For many, it is simply a convenient place to pull off the highway. But the name attached to the site, Maude Hall Jones, honors a woman whose generosity, civic involvement and maternal influence earned statewide recognition decades ago.

The park also represents the gratitude of a boy who grew up to become a prominent Missouri attorney, judge and military veteran.

The Maude Hall Jones Memorial Roadside Park was established following Jones’ death in 1954. The land was donated to the state by Judge Lue C. Lozier, who had known Jones since childhood and regarded the woman affectionately known as “Aunt Maude” as a second mother.

Maude Hall Jones was born Aug. 12, 1871, near Hallsville in Boone County, the daughter of John Hall and Mary Elizabeth Pickett Hall. Her parents were pioneers of the area and were among the founders of Red Top Christian Church.

She married Dr. Tarlton H. Jones in February 1892. Her husband practiced medicine in Boone County for years before operating a drugstore in Moberly. The couple had two children, but tragedy entered Jones' life early. Their son, Tom Jones, died in 1903 at the age of 10. Their daughter, Mary O'Donna Jones, later married Charles W. Green of Moberly.

Jones' role as a mother, however, extended far beyond her own children. After the deaths of her brother Edward Hall and his wife, Nora, Jones took two nephews and a niece into her home and reared them. Newspapers later reported that she also helped numerous young people obtain an education and establish themselves in businesses and professions.

It was the sort of influence that eventually made “Aunt Maude” an appropriate nickname far beyond the boundaries of her immediate family.

“It is as though it were our own mother to whom we give honor,” the Rev. A.E. Landolt of Central Christian Church said during a tribute to Jones. “For who, among us here, does not feel a kinship to and affection for ‘Aunt Maude?’” He described her as “friendly, sympathetic, concerned, always maternal to all.”

Following her husband's death in 1934, she assumed responsibilities that were substantial for any person of the era. She managed a farm, operated the family drugstore and ran a restaurant in Moberly that specialized in fine foods. At the same time, she maintained a remarkable schedule of civic and church activities.

Jones was associated with the Daughters of American Colonists and the Eastern Star, served as sponsor of the Sigma Phi Gamma sorority and was vice president of the Highway 24 Association. She also served as president of the Christian Women's Board of Missions and belonged to Sorosis, the Business and Professional Women's Club, Missouri Christian Women's Fellowship and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

Her home became a gathering place for people from throughout Missouri.

After moving in 1950 from South Williams Street in Moberly to her farm home, Rosemary Heights, east of the city on Highway 24, Jones continued entertaining extensively. Newspaper accounts recalled governors, members of the Missouri Supreme Court and other state dignitaries among her guests.

Yet her public prominence appears to have been secondary to the personal relationships she developed. That combination of public service and private generosity eventually resulted in one of the greatest honors of her life.

On March 23, 1953, the Moberly press announced the news prominently across its front page: “Missouri Mother of 1953 Is Mrs. Maude Hall Jones.”

Jones had been selected by the Missouri organization of the American Mothers’ Committee of the Golden Rule Foundation to represent Missouri in the national selection of the American Mother of 1953. Three other Missouri mothers received honorable mention, but Jones was chosen as the state's representative.

Gov. Phil M. Donnelly presented her with the Missouri Mother scroll during a ceremony on April 12, 1953. The governor also proclaimed the week surrounding the ceremony as Missouri State Mothers’ Week.

Newspaper coverage specifically emphasized the nephews and niece she took into her home and the young people she helped through education and into professional life.

When Central Christian Church recognized Jones’ selection, Rev. Landolt explained why the honor resonated so strongly among those who knew her.

“It is a tribute, this affection," he said, "but to her — for what she has become, for the sacrifices she has made, for the constancy of duty to her own and those she received and made her own.” He concluded, “That is mother, indeed; that is ‘Aunt Maude.’”

Jones’ time as Missouri Mother was brief. She suffered a heart attack on May 21, 1954. Her condition later became more serious, and she was admitted to Woodland Hospital in Moberly on June 9. Although she appeared to be improving, she died suddenly on June 19, 1954, at age 82. Her funeral was held at Central Christian Church, followed by burial in Centralia. Almost immediately, however, plans emerged for another kind of memorial.

The Missouri State Highway Commission accepted land along Highway 63 from Lozier for creation of a roadside park honoring Jones.

A June 21, 1954, newspaper account announced that the “Maude Hall Jones roadside park” would be established "two miles north of Ashland, in Boone County." The location was significant, but so was the man who donated it, Lue C. Lozier.

He had served as chief attorney for the Missouri State Highway Department and as a commissioner of the Missouri Supreme Court. His military career included service in both world wars, during which he attained the rank of lieutenant colonel. He received the Legion of Merit and later served as a state commander of the American Legion.

But his reason for memorializing Jones was personal. Lozier’s mother died when he was young, and newspaper accounts explained that Jones became a close friend and maternal influence in his life. Years later, the successful attorney and public official had not forgotten the kindness shown to him as a boy.

The memorial park was his opportunity to make certain others did not forget her either.

The Maude Hall Jones Memorial Roadside Park was dedicated on a Sunday afternoon in July 1955. A contemporary account in the Centralia Fireside Guard reported that the park stood 17 miles north of Jefferson City on U.S. Highway 63 and explained the program under which it had been created.

“Under a plan created several years ago, citizens may donate land on major arteries as memorial sites,” the newspaper explained, “and the highway department agrees to maintain it afterward.”

Robert E. Lee Hill of Columbia delivered a eulogy to Jones during the dedication. Her daughter, Mrs. Charles W. Green of Moberly, also participated and unveiled a memorial tablet containing the names of Missouri Mothers. The tablet had been donated by Green and her husband.

The dedication transformed a tract beside Highway 63 into something more enduring, becoming a public memorial to the values Jones represented.

Roadside parks of the period were places where families stopped during long automobile journeys. Parents unpacked lunches, children stretched their legs and travelers rested beneath shade trees before continuing down the highway. A place devoted to families became the memorial to a woman remembered principally for making others feel like family.

Lue C. Lozier lived for nearly another 17 years. When he died at his home east of Moberly on Feb. 24, 1972, newspaper accounts recalled his long career in state government, the law and the military.

Later that year, the national office of the American Legion honored him with a resolution of tribute. A newspaper report noted his service in both world wars, his rank of lieutenant colonel, receipt of the Legion of Merit and his tenure as state Legion commander.

Those accomplishments made Lozier an impressive figure in his own right. Yet along Highway 63, one of his most enduring contributions carries someone else's name.

He chose to use a piece of his land to preserve the memory of the woman who had helped fill a void in his childhood, leaving behind a roadside park that became a memorial to two stories at once.

One is the story of Maude Hall Jones, a Boone County native, businesswoman and civic leader whose care for her daughter, orphaned relatives and other young people, resulting in her designation as Missouri Mother of the Year in 1953.

The other is the story of Lue C. Lozier, the accomplished judge, attorney, soldier and Legion leader who remembered what “Aunt Maude” had meant to him.

Motorists can now cover the distance between Ashland and Columbia in only a few minutes. The highway is faster, automobiles are different and the era of small roadside parks has largely faded. But the little park remains.

For those willing to stop and consider the name, it preserves a remarkably simple idea expressed at Jones’ church more than seven decades ago.

“A mother's love is akin to that of God.”

For the people whose lives Maude Hall Jones touched, and for the young Lue Lozier who never forgot her kindness, those words were more than a tribute. They were the reason her name was placed beside the highway.
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Jeremy P. Ämick is author of the regional historical compendium “Voices of the Moreau.”  
 

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Judge Lue C. Lozier is pictured in his American Legion uniform. A veteran of both world wars, Lozier attained the rank of lieutenant colonel and later served as a state American Legion commander. He donated the land along U.S. Highway 63 for a roadside park honoring Maude Hall Jones, whom he had known since childhood and regarded as a maternal influence. Courtesy of the Roscoe Enloe American Legion Post 5.