Lena F. Gray Jones Hives (1932–2000)

Born on October 31, 1932, in Prichard, Alabama, Lena Frances Gray was the youngest child of Emit Gray, Sr. and Lena Brooks Stokes Gray, raised in a modest but steady home on Garrison Avenue. Her early years were marked by the rhythms of school, church, and southern family life. By age 7, she was attending school in Mobile County, though records show she had not yet completed a grade by the time of the 1940 U.S. Census. She shared her childhood home with her father, mother, sister Mildred, and brother Emit Jr., in a household built on hard work and deep family ties.

In the late 1940s, Lena married McKinley Jones, Sr., and by 1950, at just 18 years old, she was living with her husband, infant son McKinley Jr., and mother-in-law Pearl Johnston Jones at 301 Garrison Avenue, just two doors down from her childhood home. The following year, she gave birth to her second son, Martin Lee Jones. In 1952, Lena gave birth to Andre M. Jones, who was either stillborn or passed away within a few days of birth, a quiet sorrow that marked her early years of motherhood. She later gave birth to Raymond Jones in 1953, continuing to build the large family that would become her life’s foundation.

Lena and McKinley divorced in June 1956, and Lena returned to live in her father’s home at 305 Garrison Avenue, where she remained for the rest of her life. Widowed by 1942, Emit Gray, Sr. shared the home with Lena and her family until his death in 1971. It was Lena who carried the torch of continuity in the household, officially expanding the home in 1986, when she paid $330 to add-on to the house, a tangible mark of her perseverance and commitment to family.

She worked tirelessly to provide for her children, first as a maid in the late 1950s, and later as a lunchroom worker at Chickasaw Terrace Elementary School, an all-African American school during the height of school segregation. She retired after 17 years with the Mobile County Public School System, but her career of service extended further. For over 20 years, she also worked as a cook at Mobile Infirmary Medical Center, where her care and attention touched countless patients, staff, and families.

In December 1962, Lena married Paul Lee Hives, bringing stability and partnership to her already rich life. Even after Paul’s passing in 1969, Lena remained at the center of her family’s daily life, hosting holiday dinners, supporting grandchildren, and holding fast to the values of faith, work, and quiet resolve. A longtime member of Cedar Grove Baptist Church, Lena was known for her unwavering commitment to family, church, and community. She was the kind of woman whose life was built not on fanfare but on faithfulness, day by day, meal by meal, child by child.

Lena Frances Gray Jones Hives passed away on January 15, 2000, at the age of 67, at a local hospital in Mobile. She was buried in Prichard, the city she had never left, and whose community she had served across generations. Her life was a testimony to grace under pressure, enduring love, and the strength of African American womanhood in the Deep South.

“Her children rise up and call her blessed.” — Proverbs 31:28