John Paul Jones living in West Virginia

After talking to her motorcycling daughter, Marcia Michalski Westfall, Class of 1974, Ramona Fullen Michalski, Class of 1949, who lives in Monongah, thinks the “John Jones” who complimented sportswriting legend Mickey Furfari may not be Monongah High’s John Paul Jones.

Ramona’s email:

John,

Marcia talked to one of John Paul Jones’ relatives from McCue Avenue, Monongah.  He is living in West Virginia.  Definitely not the JPJones you were looking for.

I think Mary Catania Heywoood is probably on the right track with John Paul Jones, son of Howard and Teresa Fabian Jones. Teresa graduated from MHS in 1933.   Her father laid brick and blocks (with the help of his wife).  Probably built basements in most of the company houses that were sold  in East Monongah.   

Teresa's brother, Louis (Feb) Fabian, lived on Riedy Street in Monongah.  Feb's children are MHS grads also -- Louis, MHS 1957, Connie, MHS 1960, and Mark, MHS 1967.

Teresa’s brother, Guy “Popeye” Fabian, was a sports writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer in the fifties.  Frank (Michalski, Ramona’s late husband) attended all the Cleveland Browns home football games when we lived in Cleveland.  Frank usually ran into Popeye before the game and he was ways happy to talk to someone from Monongah.

Ramona

The confusion started when Mickey Furfari told me that he was complimented by “John Jones” of Monongah High, who was living in North Carolina, about Mickey’s interview of WVU quarterback Clint Trickett. I leaped to, apparently, the wrong conclusion, particularly after Mary Catania Heywood, Class of 1945, who lives in Covina, California, said John Paul once lived in South Carolina. Maybe he returned to West Virginia later.

Ramona remembers John Paul and his sister and mom, who worked at Sam’s Club.

I found a John Paul Jones, son of Kenneth D. Jones, who married Kimberly Joyce Green on Nov. 11, 1980 in Monongah. Kim is a daughter of John Edward Green and Joyce Laverne Collins Green.

I couldn’t find John Paul Jones in the Monongah High year-by-year graduation lists that I have. 

Those lists go from 1918, the first MHS graduation class, through 1979, the last MHS graduation before Monongah High was absorbed into the North Marion High consolidation. Greta Martin Mike, Class of 1922, created the lists so that she could start the Monongah High Alumni Reunions (1923 was the first), which continue to this day.

As for Marcia Michalski Westfall, a Monongah kindergarten teacher who lives in Kilarm with husband Dave Westfall, Class of 1948, when they’re not riding their Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic Electra Glide around the country, she and Dave are in the Outer Banks with their Harley on a 1,000-mile plus round trip.

The 2015 Monongah High Alumni Reunion will be Saturday, May 23, 2015 at the Knights of Columbus on Mary Lou Retton Drive in Fairmont. 

Circle the date on your calendar and plan to attend. Tony Eates, who lives in Fairmont, and I are trying to round up as many members as we can of the Class of 1950, one of the honor classes. If we meet face-to-face I’ll take your photo with me and others for this Monongah High Alumni blog.

If you know where Monongah’s John Paul Jones is living in West Virginia, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com with the information and I’ll add it to this Monongah High Alumni blog article.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Mary Catania Heywood, Class of 1945, after seeing the original article, emailed this:

Hi John,

                The address my brother had for John Paul, son of Howard & Teresa Jones, was Myrtle Beach, SC.  Phone # xxx xxx xxxx.   This was  many yrs back,  he’s not sure if it’s of value….. His family moved to Morgantown and he did not graduate from MHS.  Good luck, someone may have his current address.

Mary Heywood

Mary is married to Arthur Heywood.

When Mary’s brother, Angelo Catania, went into the Army’s Coast Artillery during World War II, as was reported in an earlier Monongah High Alumni emailed newsletter, “He really liked this part of the country and convinced the rest of us that we also would like it.”

At the time, Alex was teaching school in Perry, Ohio.  Josephine was working for the government in Washington, D.C. Angelo was working in Clarksburg. Mary was working in Fairmont. 

Added Mary: “We opted to come here as a family and secured work that we all liked and remained only a few miles away from one another.  Of course, my father was already retired and California reminded him of his native Sicily.”

The Catania children’s father was an amateur photographer and inventor, remembers Frank Franze, Class of 1950, who lives in Slidell, Louisiana.

Four of the five Catania siblings have lived in Covina since -- till Alex, Class of 1944, died in 2007, and Josephine, Class of 1952, died in 2009. 

Angelo, Class of 1943, will celebrate his 90th birthday on Aug. 12. Pauline Layne Catania, wife of Angelo, died in 2001. I’ve exchanged Facebook messages with Paula Catania, Angelo’s daughter.

Carmella Catania Allard, Class of 1947, didn’t move to Covina because her husband, Omer Allard, was still in the service. They live in San Antonio, Texas.