{"id":45699,"date":"2026-09-01T15:49:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T20:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=45699"},"modified":"2026-09-02T16:50:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:50:49","slug":"william-bill-jones-78-of-newton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/45699-william-bill-jones-78-of-newton\/","title":{"rendered":"William &#8220;Bill&#8221; Jones (78) of Newton"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>William \u201cBill\u201d Jones age 78, of Newton, Illinois, passed away on Monday, August 31, 2026, at HSHS St. John\u2019s Hospital in Springfield, Illinois.<\/p>\n<p>Funeral services celebrating Bill\u2019s life will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, September 5th , 2026, at New Beginnings Church, Newton, Illinois with Pastor Tom Matson officiating. Visitation will be held from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m., Friday, September 4th and from 10:00 a.m. until time of services, Saturday, at New Beginnings Church. Burial will be in the West Lawn Memorial Park<br \/>\nCemetery with military rites being conducted by Jasper Post No. 20 of the American Legion. Crain Funeral Home, Newton is assisting the family with the arrangements.<\/p>\n<p>Bill was born on June 2, 1948, in DeKalb, Illinois, the son of Wesley and Bernadine (Boyd) Jones. Bill married Cathy Johnson on August 7, 1981. She survives. Following high school, Bill was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds as a pitcher in 1968. Due to an injury, his professional career ended before he got to play. He then volunteered his service to the U.S. Army from 1968 \u2013 1972. During his time in service, Bill played for the Army Softball Team. After his time in service, Bill attended college, earning his teaching degree. He taught and coached at Martinsville, Paris and Jasper Unit No. 1. In addition to teaching and coaching, he maintained the Jasper County Boys\u2019 and Girls\u2019 park for many years. Bill loved to play fast pitch softball in the local area. He, together with Rick Ricker formed a semi-pro baseball team. Throughout the years, Bill was awarded many honors, MVP (1966), a 10-0 record and an ERA of 0.68 for Oblong High School. He proudly coached the N.C.H.S. Baseball Team, where they earned the title of Regional Champions in \u201984, \u201985, \u201988, \u201992, \u201995 and \u201999. He coached the Newton Central State team in 1992 and led the team to the Apollo<br \/>\nChampion title in 1997, where he was also awarded the Apollo Conference Coach award. In addition to baseball, Bill coached girls\u2019 basketball at N.C.H.S. from \u201978-\u201982. He coached many talented high school girls, including his sister-in-law, Cindy Johnson. Bill loved sport and spent his career dedicated to coaching. His memberships include the New Beginnings Church, where he was baptized, Jasper Post No. 20 of the American Legion, V.F.W. Post No. 7537, Moose Lodge and the Jasper County Retired Teachers\u2019 Association. In his free time, Bill enjoyed a good game of golf and poker and loved to go fishing. He loved baseball and was an avid St. Louis Cardinal fan.<\/p>\n<p>Bill will be loved and forever remembered by his wife Cathy Jones of Newton; his children, Billy Jones of Newton and Nicole Jones of Las Vegas and his grand daughter Tessa Jones who was Papa\u2019s girl; his brother, Randy (Julie) Jones; sisters, Carol (Charley) Earlewine, Tammie Mayhood, and Jamie (Alan) Mendenhall; father-in-law, Paul Johnson; sister-in-law Cindy Johnson (Jessica Daniels), brother-in-law, Steve (Shelly) Johnson; and many nieces and nephews.<\/p>\n<p>His parents, Wes and Bernadine Jones, brother, Mark Wesley Jones, mother-in-law, Elnora Johnson, grandparents, Everrett and Mary Jones and Aaron and Rosette Boyd and brother-in-law<br \/>\nMike Mayhood preceded him in death.<\/p>\n<p>Memorial contributions may be made to the N.C.H.S. Baseball Team, c\/o N.C.H.S., 201 West End Ave., Newton, Illinois 62448. Online condolences may be offered at www.crainfuneral.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>William \u201cBill\u201d Jones age 78, of Newton, Illinois, passed away on Monday, August 31, 2026, at HSHS St. John\u2019s Hospital in Springfield, Illinois. Funeral services celebrating Bill\u2019s life will be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":45865,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obits"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>William &quot;Bill&quot; Jones (78) of Newton - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/45699-william-bill-jones-78-of-newton\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"William &quot;Bill&quot; 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