Jones, Elsie Mae Cudnohufsky

Elsie Mae Cudnohufsky Jones taught a handful of third-grade classes during her 30 years at Bray Elementary in Cedar Hill – but she always preferred the innocence of her second-grade students.
"She taught third grade for a while, but she felt they were too grown up," said her son Kent Jones of Duncanville. "She went back to second grade."

Mrs. Jones, 86, died Sunday at Methodist Dallas Medical Center of complications from a fall in May.
Services will be at 10 a.m. today at Jaynes Memorial Chapel in Duncanville. Graveside services will follow at noon at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery.

Mrs. Jones was born in Pound, Wis., and received her teaching certificate from Oshkosh State Teachers College, now the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh. She later earned a master's degree in elementary education from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas.

She met her husband to be, James Thomas Jones Jr., in a fleeting encounter in her church vestibule in Oshkosh, where he was stationed with the Army Air Forces during World War II.

"My mom went over and said 'hello' and ran away," Kent Jones said. "My dad spent the next week going, 'Who was that?' "

Mrs. Jones started her teaching career in Sheboygan, Wis. After the war, Mr. Jones, a descendent of Dallas' pioneer Ledbetter family, wanted to return to Texas to escape the frigid Wisconsin winters.
In 1960, Mrs. Jones returned to teaching, this time at Bray Elementary, where she retired in 1990.
Mrs. Jones had been a member of Cockrell Hill Baptist Church for 56 years. She taught nursery and preschool at the church for 52 years.

In retirement, Mrs. Jones was an active member of the Oak Cliff Woman's Club.
"She was always on the go," her son said.