Remembering Jeanne Jones

I’m sad to report that longtime collector Jeanne Jones has passed. I mentioned her GoFundMe last month.

Please see this thread on the FSM board with info on a remembrance in the L.A. area on the 25th—I’ll be there.

I received this remembrance from longtime friend, filmmaker Willard Carroll, who asked to share a few words with the community:

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In the ’90s I purchased quite a few soundtracks from one J.J. Jones. After a couple of years of contact, I extended an invitation to our annual Christmas party. When J.J. arrived, she introduced herself, extended a hand, and said, “You’re surprised about my gender, right?”

In the collecting world, that’s the very definition of “meeting cute.”

Jeanne explained to me that she had “hidden” behind a non-gender-specific identify to maintain a certain anonymity and sense of security.

Over the years, she spent hours in my house, sharing stories of her collecting adventures and travels. At one point, in my archive, she pulled out a copy of Charles Fox’s LP for WOMEN IN CHAINS and literally screamed, “I thought only I had one of these!

I then pulled out my copy of the test pressing LP of the David Amram score for THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. She said, “I hate you!” and then hugged me.

We shared a love of England. In the late ’90s I was making a movie in the U.K. and living in a hotel in Covent Garden. She contacted me there to ask if I had a copy of THE CAINE MUTINY. I didn’t and she put me in touch with a local London dealer and then-major eBay soundtrack seller (I’m certain most of you know who I’m talking about).

Over tea at the hotel, she told me that she and Jeanne were so appreciative of all the pleasant dealings we had that she wanted to offer me a copy of the LP (at a ridiculously low price). She reached into a bag and pulled out four (!) copies of THE CAINE MUTINY and told me to inspect them and take my pick of the best condition copy. It doesn’t get much better than that!

I moved from L.A. to Maine 16 years ago and Jeanne and I kept in touch by phone, speaking two or three times a year.

Jeanne was that rare individual who maintained her enthusiasm for just about everything but she “lived” for film music. 

She was a life lesson in the beauty of maintaining a continuing sense of wonder and joy. I doubt she could even spell “jaded.”

In the collecting world, Jeanne was a unique, genuine, generous original.

I’m sorry to say that until reading this forum I was not aware of her illness, let alone her death.

She was the best of the best—in any world.

—Willard Carroll