Monica Jones, front row right, receives a resolution passed by Patterson City Council on Tuesday to honor her husband, Housing Authority board member Frank "Percy" Jones, who died March 9. Also shown in front, from left, are Councilmen John Rentrop and Travis Darnell, who was Jones' great nephew. Back row: Mayor Rodney Grogan, Councilman Lee Condolle and Councilwoman Sandra K. Turner. Councilman Joe Russo wasn't present.
Patterson council pays respects to housing authority member
PATTERSON — A resolution of respect, a fairly routine event at local government meetings to honor officials or employees who have died, turned into a tearful event at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
The resolution honored Frank “Percy” Jones, who died March 9.
Jones served on the Patterson Public Housing Authority board for 11 years and served three terms as its chairman.
He also fought a 98-day battle against COVID-19, including 45 days of hospitalization at Ochsner St. Mary beginning in March 2020. Jones was on a ventilator for nearly a month.
“Then my world was shattered from that day on,” his wife, Monica Jones, told The Daily Review in August. “I couldn’t see him, couldn’t talk to him. All I had to do was rely on Dr. (Eric) Melancon calling me two, three times a day telling me how he was doing. Some days it was good. Some days it was bad.”
“I had all these people praying, and they kept telling me, ‘Mr. Frank, you’re a walking miracle,’” Percy Jones said for our story. “I know the prayers from all of these churches and from these people, they worked.”
The council presented the resolution to Monica Jones at Tuesday’s meeting.
Percy Jones was 61.