Decades before L.B. Jones became regarded as one the premier amateur archaeologists in the Southeast, he was toiling away his summers as a pitcher in baseball’s minor leagues.

He rubbed up against greatness in 1935, when he was invited to the New York Yankees’ spring training, where he pitched batting practice to home-run king Babe Ruth.

It’s not known how far into the Florida air Ruth drove those pitches delivered by Jones, but it was one of many interesting footnotes in the life of Jones, known for his generosity, kind spirit and devotion to preserving the Delta’s ancient history.

“Preserving this kind of history is important,” Jones said in an interview less than a year before his death in 1995. “If it is not done, it will disappear.”

Lib Burkes Jones was born on July 20, 1910, in Morton, but his family moved to Jackson when Jones was young. He was a student athlete at Millsaps College, where he played football, basketball and baseball while majoring in math and science. During the summers before and during his years at Millsaps, he played minor league baseball in a series of different leagues, which led to his crossing paths with Ruth.

After graduating in 1939 from Millsaps, he taught high school in Minter City until entering the military during World War II. After the war, he returned to Minter City and married Carrie Fisher Avent, a renowned Oriental dancer who had studied in both America and the Far East.

He would later joke about their unlikely pairing, “If she had seen me dance, she may have not married me.”

Jones stopped teaching and took up farming, working and living with his wife on her family’s plantation. He developed an intense interest in archaeology, and although he was officially labeled an amateur, he studied and learned from the professionals who would come to consider him an esteemed colleague. Travis Clark, who as a child accompanied the Joneses and his parents on many Sunday afternoons looking for artifacts, said that professors from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology would refer to the farmer as “Dr. Jones.”

Jones and his wife traveled all over the Delta collecting pottery and its sherds or pieces, arrowheads and other projectile points, and stones that the region’s earliest inhabitants used for tools. He conducted or financed dozens of excavations. Some of his Indian artifacts date back 12,000 years.

He also discovered and acquired an extensive collection of beads that European explorers and settlers would use to trade with the Indians.

He was a co-founder of the foundation that created Cottonlandia Museum, now the Museum of the Mississippi Delta. He made the museum the base of his archaeological collection, drawing researchers from all over to study his finds.

Jones also was a devoted conservationist. He and his wife turned Avent Plantation into a bird sanctuary. The couple took thousands of photographs of nature, specializing in close-ups of birds.

Jones received numerous awards and honorary memberships from archaeological societies. The Mississippi Archaeological Association presents annually an award named after him.

Jones was a Republican long before the party became fashionable in Mississippi. He served on the national GOP’s resolutions committee in 1952, the year Dwight Eisenhower, a decorated World War II general, became the party’s presidential
nominee.

The Museum of the Mississippi Delta (formerly) Cottonlandia Museum

The archaeology collection of the L.B. Jones Trust, is immense, and includes the largest collection of Native American trade beads in the southern United States. The museum also boasts a room dedicated to the agricultural history of our region, and includes artifacts such as plows, fertilizer spreaders, mule hames, and blacksmith tools. Artifacts and furniture from Malmaison, the home of Greenwood Leflore, and numerous military history items are also highlights of the antique collection. A life-size, walk-through diorama of a Mississippi swamp (complete with sound effects), coupled with a hands-on natural science room are always favorites of visitors.

Baseball Stats:

Lib Burkes Jones
Born: July 20, 1910
Deceased: 1995
Primary Position: Pitcher
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 175
Career: 1933-1942

LB Jones compiled a career record of 79 wins and 79 losses and a 4.23 ERA in his 249-game pitching career with the Jackson Senators,
Jackson Mississippians,
Oklahoma City Indians,
Clarksdale Ginners,
Helena Seaporters,
Lenoir Indians,
Kannapolis Towelers,
Greenwood Choctaws,
Clarksdale Red Sox,
Greenville Buckshots and Jackson Generals.

He began playing during the 1933 season and last took the field during the 1942 campaign