The Addams Family’s Carolyn Jones: A Descendant of Geronimo?

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By James Pylant*
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Posted 22 May 2007; Revised 27 May 2007, 2 April 2015
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Reportedly, Carolyn Jones was one-eighth Native American, and she was a descendant of the famous Apache chief Geronimo.¹ I asked the late actress’s sister, Bette Jones Moriarty, about that claim, which she dismisses as a Hollywood “publicity stunt.”² Harlyn Geronimo, great-grandson of Geronimo, also finds the claim doubtful. “As far as I am concerned, my immediate family and I are his only descendants,” he tells me.³ Research into the family background of the actress has failed produce any evidence of an Apache connection or yet another claimed Native American bloodline—Comanche.⁴

Carolyn Jones’s birth date was the 28th of April, but the year varies in biographical sources. Internet Movie Database gives 1929,⁵ while The Handbook of Texas gives 1933.⁶ Several websites, including Internet Movie Database, incorrectly state her birth name was Carolyn Sue Baker. According to her birth certificate, Carolyn Sue Jones was born on 28 April 1930 in Amarillo, Potter County, Texas. Her father’s name is recorded as Julious A. Jones, who was listed as a thirty-four-year-old barber. Her mother, whose maiden name was recorded as Cloe Jeanette Southern, was 26-year-old housewife. At the time of Carolyn’s birth, her father was living in Midland, Texas. (A duplicate of the certificate filed two months later changed the spelling of Carolyn’s name to Carrelyn.)⁷

Carolyn’s parents had a troubled marriage, and her father, Julius Alfred Jones, abandoned the family in 1934. “He left me twice, and I left him twice; so, we were even,” Cloe told her daughter, Bette.⁸ Carolyn, many years after becoming an established star, received a telephone message from a man claiming to be Julius Jones. She refused, however, to return the call.⁹

Eleven days before Carolyn’s birth, her mother—then separated from her husband—was enumerated on the 1930 census at 2132 Hayden Street in Amarillo, Potter County, Texas. She is listed as Chloe Jones, the 23-year-old daughter to the head of the household, Charles W. Baker, age 44, born in Wisconsin to a New York father and a Vermont mother. Baker’s occupation is listed as Assistant Manager, Implement Company. His wife, Emily Caroline, age 40, was born in Texas to a Mississippi father and an Alabama mother.¹⁰

Chloe Jeanette (Southern) Jones’s birth date is recorded as 28 April 1906, meaning she turned 24 on the day her daughter was born.¹¹ Her birthplace was Jericho, Donley County, Texas.¹² The 1910 census for Kiowa County, Oklahoma, lists Cloah R. Southern, age five, born in Texas to Texas parents, as the “adopted Daughter” of Levi M. Southern and his second wife of eight years, Mallie [Mattie]. Mr. Southern, age 62, was born in Georgia; Mrs. Southern, age 38, was born in Arkansas. Also living with the family were his son, John R. Southern, age 40, and mother-in-law, Sophia Campbell, age 78.¹³  At age 15, Chloe Southern, a Texas native, was living with her adoptive parents in Gray County, Texas.¹⁴

Chloe Jeanette had a close relationship with her adoptive father. “She loved him dearly,” says Bette Moriarty. She was not, however, close to Mrs. Southern, and that troubled relationship led Jeanette to run away from home. (The Southerns were then living in boardinghouse in Mineral Wells, Palo Pinto County, Texas.) She eventually lived with her biological mother, Emily Caroline “Callie” Ray, the wife of Charles Baker.¹⁵

Bette Moriarty remembers her grandmother, Emily Caroline, as “a wonderful, elegant, very beautiful woman.”¹⁶ She was born on 2 August 1888 and died on 5 December 1966 in Orange County, California.¹⁷ Her husband, Charles Waterman Baker, was born on 22 June 1885 in Wisconsin and he died on 15 March 1953, also in Orange County.¹⁸

Emily C. Ray, at age 12, appeared on the 1900 census for Donley County, Texas, in the household of her widowed father, Benjamin B. Ray, whose age is unlisted. He was a farmer, born in Alabama to Georgia parents. Emily’s older siblings were Benjamin, age 24 (born in June 1895); Joseph, age 20 (born in November 1879); Jennie I., age 15 (born in December 1884); and John F., age 14 (born in January 1886). She had a younger sister and brother: Matilda P., age ten (born in March 1890) and Thomas R., age six (born in July 1893). All of Benjamin B. Ray’s children were Texas natives.¹⁹

Benjamin B. Ray died of pneumonia on 22 February 1932 in Wichita Falls, Wichita County, Texas.²⁰ He was buried at Jericho Cemetery, Donley County, near his wife, Mattie, who was born 21 March 1850 and died 9 December 1895.²¹ A daughter-in-law to the couple identified Mrs. B. B. Ray as the former Mattie Bryant.²² However, in an interview for A Memorial and Biographical History of Johnson and Hill County, Benjamin B. Ray stated he married Martha Prestridge, daughter of J. M. and Emily Prestridge, in 1870.²³ This surname is also given for mother’s maiden name on the death certificate of Emily C. (Ray) Baker.²⁴ B. B. Ray and J. M. Prestridge both lived in Barnesville, Johnson County, Texas, and their names appear in Farmers’ Directory of Johnson County, Texas, for 1879—80.²⁵ B. B. Ray was born 12 March 1848 in Talladega County, Alabama, and his interview identified his parents as James Ray and the former Caroline Bennett.²⁶

Chloe Jeanette Southern Jones died 16 November 1979 in Los Angeles, California.²⁷ Actress Carolyn Jones survived her mother by less than four years, dying of colon cancer on 3 August 1983 in Los Angeles.²⁸ She had married four times: first to Don G. Donaldson, second to Aaron Spelling, third to Herbert Greene, and fourth to Peter Bailey-Britton.²⁹

Carolyn Jones had appeared in more than a hundred movies and television episodes³⁰ by her death at age 53, though all are overshadowed by the iconic Morticia in The Addams Family. Bette Moriarty says the dark-humored role was closest to her sister’s offbeat sense of humor. “It was made for her!” she says.³¹

*James Pylant is author of In Morticia’s Shadow: The Life & Career of Carolyn Jones, published in 2012.

NOTES AND REFERENCES