Jennie Jones said one thing over and over: “She loved people.”

And they loved her right back.

Jennie’s daughter, Ms. Johnetta Jones, was a great cook, she won awards. She loved to garden, she couldn’t get enough of Christmas and she could find a bargain no matter how hard it was to hunt down.

Ms. Jones’ hobbies helped make her an interesting woman, but her presence at Eastern caused some here to call her a legend.

The Daily Eastern News named Ms. Jones Person of the Year because of how many lives she touched. Her former coworkers estimate she impacted the lives of close to 1 million through her work at the university.

She had been at Eastern for 26 years before dying Oct. 11 at age 56 because of a severe infection worsened by the ingestion of E. coli.

Many on campus looked at her as a mother figure because she was always willing to listen, offering advice when asked.

She wouldn’t always tell students what they wanted to hear, but as director of Minority Affairs, her concern reached beyond advising minority students, said Cythnia Nichols, director of the Civil Rights Office.

She would say to students, “You know what you have to do, do it,” encouraging them to be stay active in their education, said Priscilla Wininger, Ms. Jones’ secretary for 16 years.

Ms. Jones mother to many

Even though Ms. Jones never had children of her own, she loved having them around. She spoiled her nieces and nephews, Wininger said.

“We called (Minority Affairs) the baby office. If a baby came in, I’d grab them and then she’d grab them,” Wininger said.

Former students would bring their children back for Ms. Jones to see.

Growing up, “she had the opportunity to do a lot of mothering,” Jennie said. “She was always the motherly type.”

The Jones were raised in Carbondale. Ms. Jones was the oldest of four children and would drag her brother, Danny, to the university library while she attended Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Danny soon knew as much about the library as his older sister. Ms. Jones read history books to him as bedtime stories, Jennie said.

“He, to this day, loves history,” Jennie said. “Instead of reading fairy tales to him, she would give him a history book.”

Ms. Jones later attended Kent State University where she helped organize civil rights events during the 1960s.

After coming to Eastern in 1977, it did not take long for Ms. Jones to make friends. Soon she knew at least one person in every department, Wininger said.

Nichols said Ms. Jones had a certain management style: She would walk around and just talk to people.

Ms. Jones was connected to people of all walks of life, said Don Dawson, an academic adviser in Minority Affairs since 1991.

She began the Gateway Program more than 20 years ago to give students who were not accepted to Eastern another chance to take classes here.

“She was the first person to take a chance on someone,” said Dawson, who works with the Gateway Program.

With Ms. Jones gone, her coworkers do not have the opportunity to hear as much news about everyone else, about the campus community, said Pam Warpenburg, secretary in Minority Affairs.

“She had connections from one coast to another,” said Warpenburg, who met Ms. Jones in 1992.

Ms. Jones helped with Upward Bound and organizing summer workshops. She taught African-American studies and sociology courses.

Her coworkers said she never really sat down. Banquets would find Ms. Jones making rounds from table to table talking.

Nichols is helping create a memory book of submitted memories of Ms. Jones. They are still coming in on slips of paper, e-mails and other ways, she said, hoping it can be given to Ms. Jones’ family soon.

A scholarship set up in Ms. Jones name will be awarded for the first time in fall 2005. The scholarship has already collected $25,000, according to the EIU Foundation.

Ms. Jones’ death brought to the forefront how sorely she will be missed by the campus community, but what she did while she was alive, will put her in the books of Eastern’s history, Nichols said.

“I have only been on campus for two years, but she seemed to be a legend,” said Joycelynn Phillips, an academic adviser with Minority Affairs, “She had such a presence. You knew she was there.”

Ms. Jones loved to garden and shop, but also read romance novels, Warpenburg said.

“Her romances could have stacked to the top of Old Main,” Warpenburg said.

If Ms. Jones were told The News was recognizing her as Person of the Year, “she would be smiling and probably try to steer the recognition away from her,” Warpenburg said.

“They really know what they’re doing. Where’s the food?,” Warpenburg said Ms. Jones would have said.

Past winners:

2003-Father Chris Brey and Roy Lanham, of the Newman Catholic Center

2002-Lou Hencken, President

2001-Rick Samuels, men’s basketball coach

2000-David Radavich, UPI negotiating team

1999-Melissa Girtin, student who pushed for the Panther Express

1998-Members of the AFSCME Local 981

1997-Erin Weed, student who pushed for recycling program

I996-Lisa Garrison, student who established EIU Peace Talks