Page 54 - November 2020

CARS, PLANES HORSES
and
Dan and Kaye Jones’ Journey to the Winner’s Circle
by Diane Rice
Some people are just natural magnets whose genuine friendship and pleasant nature draw others to them. Such is the case with owners/breeders Dan and Kaye Jones of Kemp, Texas. “Time passes so fast that I don’t remember when we actually met, but it was probably five years or so ago,”
says friend and fellow race industry leader Verna Pevehouse of Webber Falls, Oklahoma. “We met when CRM Livewire was running at Claremore; he’d just won a derby and we became fast friends.
“They’re very hard-working people and
they really care about their horses,” Verna
adds. “It’s not just a business to them. They’re good business people and good friends. I enjoy watching their horses run and they enjoy watching mine. And we enjoy each other’s company whether we’re on the racetrack or not.”
Although they’ve ridden the top of the roller coaster for several years, they rode that coaster up and down for decades before that. “They’ve done really well the past few years,” says their
trainer Matt Whitekiller. “But before that, they spent 30 years struggling for the top.”
Throughout those learning-curve years, their genuine love for their horses and for the sport led them on a path to the top levels of Paint racing, and they’re now enjoying the fruits of their labor.
HER BEST DECISION
Kaye Jones started life in Santa Fe, New Mexico, one of four children of Kenneth and Carol “Sally” Garard. She spent her early years on the Navajo reservation in Window Rock, Arizona, then when she reached 7th grade, she attended a small boarding school in Utah. She moved on to Scottsdale High School and Arizona State University, became a dental assistant in Salt Lake City, Utah, then served
a two-year stint as an American Airlines flight attendant in Dallas, Texas.
“In those days, ‘stewardesses’ couldn’t be married, and we had to be a certain weight, our
hair had to be a certain length and we had to wear a girdle,” she says. She gave up her airborne career when she married her first husband.
Kaye’s present husband, Dan Jones, began his
life in 1946 in Hillsboro, Texas, one of two children
of Buddy and Naomi Jones. He attended school in Whitney, Texas, then Dallas, and then, Kaye says, the school of hard knocks. “That was the best thing that ever happened to him,” she adds, “because he started working at a car dealership and they had one of the best sales training operations. He turned that into owning his own dealership in Lewisville, Texas, for 30 years.”
After her first marriage, Kaye vowed never to marry again. But along with selling cars, Dan’s salesmanship brought Kaye around to his way of thinking, and in 1983, they tied the knot. “I told her I’d have her wearing diamonds as big as horseshoes,” Dan jokes.
“Little did he know, it only took a little bit of turquoise!” she quips. “It’s been very wonderful; the best decision I ever made.”
52 SPEEDHORSE November 2020