Born on June 30, 1929 in Haskell, Texas to Hardie Jones and Myra Hadaway Jones. She passed away on June 28, 2019 in Cameron, Texas where she lived the latter part of her life. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Hurley Funeral Home of Devine, Tx with burial at Evergreen Cemetery.
She was preceded in death by her husband Harlan W. Ontjes on June 12, 1980, her parents, grandparents and sisters, Virginia Smith, LaRue Lauderdale, Helen Buckner, Ersel Spannagel, Ersel’s twin sister, Mersel who died in infancy and Opal Mortensen.
She is survived by her daughter, Elizabeth Ann Bartlett and husband Larry of Rockdale,
TX. Two grandsons, Michael and wife Bernadetha of San Antonio, TX and Philip Bartlett of Rockdale, TX. Granddaughter Dawn Bartlett of Cheyenne, WY. Three great-grandsons, Quenten, Gabriel and Jacksen Chalmers of Cheyenne, WY.
She is also survived by her brother Paul Jones of Houston, TX. Sisters Leona McLean and husband Robert of Flower Mound, TX, Dorothy Bottos and husband Richard of Hockley, TX and Helma Ellison of Kyle, TX. Other survivors include brother-in-laws Harold Lauderdale, Tom Buckner and James Mortensen along with numerous nieces and nephews.
Martha Harlene Jones Ontjes received the highest ranking in her freshman through junior high school class in the Santa Rosa, TX Public School System where she graduated as the Valedictorian of her 1946 graduating class. She then went on to attend Edinburg Jr. College in Edinburg, TX where she obtained an Associate Degree. From there she received her B.S. Degree at Texas A&I (now Texas A&M) located in Kingsville, TX. Her Masters degree was obtained from South Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. After receiving her Masters Degree she got a Bilingual Certificate in Spanish and English and a Principal’s certificate. Also received was a curriculum certificate for all elementary grades.
Her 40 years of teaching began at Sebastian, TX where she taught bilingual second grade. Her teaching career in Devine, TX began at a small country school called Shook School where she taught the 4th, 5th and 6th grades. Along with her, her husband and daughter she lived in the small house next to the school. In the Devine Public School System she taught many grades but mainly Junior High Math. She started the first Junior High girl’s sports participation in Devine. There she coached basketball, volleyball and softball. When her daughter Elizabeth was a Freshman high school she was asked to teach Freshman girls P.E. and coach Freshman teams.
In the early 1960’s her, her husband and daughter moved to Corpus Christi, TX. In
Corpus Christi she taught “How to Teach Math” and “How to Teach Reading” in
Elementary school at the Baptist College. This was done in the summers after teaching
5th grade math and Spanish all year long. In Corpus Christi she taught at Shannon Elementary and was also an assistant principal there for three years.
In the 1970’s her and her husband moved back to Devine where she again taught school. Before her retirement she taught school in Poteet, TX. While teaching in both Devine and Poteet she had a lot of success with her students who participated in I-JIL math. Mrs. Ontjes was a teacher who loved her job and students.
After her retirement in 1990 she did a lot of traveling. She traveled in all the seven continents, 40 countries and 48 states. The only two states she didn’t travel to were Minnesota and Delaware.
She was a long-time member of the Devine First Baptist Church. She had many friends but her very best friends were her one brother and all her sisters. They had many reunions. One was at Thanksgiving where all the siblings showed up and at that one the cousins and everyone else was invited. Then they had a Jones “Kids” reunion where only the one brother, sisters and spouses attended. In the later years however some of us cousins were allowed to come to this one as their caregivers!!! As a member of the First Baptist Church she served as the church librarian and went on many trips with the “Seniors”. She really liked to travel.
When her youngest grandson lived with her in Devine, he use to comment on you can’t go anywhere that you don’t meet one of her former students. AND IT WAS TRUE.
We were eating out one day, I don’t remember where, but it wasn’t in Devine when this gentleman came up to her and said, “Aren’t you Mrs. Ontjes.” Of course, she answered yes and he said, you use to teach me!!!!