Greta Jones

Greta Rosalind Waller Jones (Republican political activist from Monroe, Louisiana)
Born	March 18, 1939 Reared in Union Parish, Louisiana
Died	April 3, 2018 (aged 79) Monroe, Louisiana
Spouse	James L. "Jimmy" Jones Children: James H. "Bud" Jones (deceased) Richard Kevin Jones Robert Eric Jones Frances Kay Jones King
Religion	Presbyterian

Greta Rosalind Waller Jones (March 18, 1939 &ndasgh; April 3, 2018) was a Republican political activist from Monroe, Louisiana, who served as the vice chairman of two state commissions during the administrations of Governors David C. Treen and Bobby Jindal.

Formerly a Democrat, Jones joined the GOP in 1970 and was affiliated with the Ouachita Parish Women's Republican Club, the Louisiana Federation of Republican Women, and the National Federation of Republican Women. During her term as president of the LFRW, she worked to establish the Republican Magnolia Club, the Marion Gore Kurfiss Award, named for a GOP pioneer from Alexandria, who lived from 1905 to 1993, and died on the day of the first inauguration of Democratic U.S. President Bill Clinton, and the Virginia Morse "Ginny" Martinez Scholarship, named for the Louisiana Republican national committeewoman from 1977 until her death in 1992. While Jones was the LFRW president, twenty-eight Republican women were elected to public office. She was the founding director of "Gal's Golf Classic," a women's tournament supporting Easter Seals. She was a delegate to the 1976 and the 1980 Republican National Conventions in Kansas City, Missouri, and Detroit, Michigan. Governor Treen named her to the Louisiana Tourism Development Commission; Jindal appointed her to the Louisiana Board of Parole. She was also the secretary of the Ouachita Expressway Authority. She conducted numerous Republican leadership, polling, and campaign schools.

Jones was the only child of Benjamin Oliver "Ben" Waller (1900-1944), who died when Greta was five, and the former Vada B. Pilgreen (1916-2000), who subsequently wed Gerald Lloyd Norman (1917-1979), Jones' stepfather. Jones was reared in Farmerville and in rural Haile, both in Union Parish. She attended Haile Elementary School and graduated from Linville High School in Marion, also in Union Parish, and the University of Louisiana at Monroe. She also studied at the Bish Mathis Institute, a business college in Longview, Texas, and Bossier Parish Community College in Bossier City. She and her husband, Jimmy L. "Jimmy" Jones, whom she met while employed in Sterlington north of Monroe, had three sons and a daughter, the late James H. "Bud" Jones, Richard Kevin Jones and wife Judith of Bastrop in Morehouse Parish, Robert Eric Jones and wife Laurie of Melbourne, Florida, and Frances Kay Jones King and husband, Tim, of McKinney, Texas.

Jones died of cancer at the age of seventy-nine. She donated her body to medical science. A memorial service was held at the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Monroe. Her honorary pallbearers included a "Who's Who" of local Republican figures: the 5th congressional district nominee in 1975, businessman Frank Spooner; former District Attorney and State Senator Robert William "Bob" Kostelka; current state Senator Michael Arthur "Mike" Walsworth, former U.S. Representative John Charles Cooksey, and Luke J. Letlow, chief of staff to current U.S. Representative Ralph Abraham.

Letlow recalled in 2003 his taking Jindal to meet with Jones, who told the candidate that she did not think he could win that year in the race against the Democrat Kathleen Blanco but that Jindal could become a strong contender in subsequent elections. She was right in that prediction. Letlow called Jones "tough as nails."