There is a story Elaine Wrice, 74, had not heard while growing up as an African American. And, after more than 30 years of teaching and after earning her doctorate in education, she’s just now getting this history lesson. And she thinks everyone needs to hear about it.

“Everybody should know about all of this,” Wrice, of Pasadena, said on Saturday, May 3, while attending the “Discovering Anna H. Jones and Sophia B. Jones” event at Second Baptist Church in Monrovia.

Wrice and her husband Lawrence were among the 200 guests of Monrovia groups that banded together to share the story of the Jones sisters, who achieved much in their trailblazing careers before retiring to Monrovia in the 1920s.

Sandy Burud, president of the Monrovia Historical Society and team member of the Monrovia ChangeMakers said the sisters’ stories underscore perseverance, scholarship and activism. The two groups joined seven others in hosting a program at Second Baptist Church and the dedicating the sisters’ grave markers at Live Oak Memorial Park in Monrovia.

The elder sister, Anna Holland Jones, was born in 1855 and was an educator, civil rights leader and suffragist who was the first African American teacher in Kansas City and first African American principal of Douglass School, a public school for African Americans. Anna worked with pillars in the civil rights movement such as W.E.B. Du Bois, to support women of color. She helped found the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs in 1896. The eponymous club she established in Monrovia in 1920 still awards scholarships to local, college-bound students.

Sophia, whose name was pronounced “So-FIE-ya,” was born in 1857 and graduated from the University of Toronto in 1879, surpassing that feat by finishing medical school at the University of Michigan in 1885, the school’s first female Black graduate. Sophia founded the first nursing program at Spelman College in Atlanta, going on to teach nursing in hospitals in Philadelphia and practice medicine in Kansas City. She was the first Black woman to have her work published in an academic public health journal under the name “Dr. S. B. Jones.”

The sisters retired to Monrovia in 1920 and lived with their sister Emily, also a teacher, and brother George, a carpenter who built homes for Quakers in Whittier, at an orange ranch at 1301 S. Shamrock, in a house George built. Both Anna and Sophia died in 1932. Their descendants, all from their brother George’s line, live in homes built on that ranch today.

Four generations of the Joneses, including the third-generation physician in the family, were at the event.

Dr. Alexis Thompson, chief of the hemotology division at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and faculty at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, calls the Jones sisters “my amazing ancestral aunties.”

“We all of us, from all cultures, have elders in the community who ground us all and we go to them because they have such wisdom,” Thompson said. “I encourage everyone to own my aunties, celebrate their presence, keep their memory alive and move forward just in the way they have.”

Burud said the drive to highlight the overlooked chapter of history started last fall, when the historical society was planning its annual cemetery tour. Lois Gaston, historian and former mayor of Duarte, mentioned the sisters’ story and how their graves remain unmarked at Live Oak.

“That started the whole process of learning more,” Gaston said. “This story could not have happened anywhere else but Monrovia. Is there bigotry? Yes. Is it perfect? No. But we’re working on it.”

Jennifer Purdue of Monrovia searched the cemetery archives to confirm the sisters’ final resting place. She also discovered that the ashes of their younger sister Emily, who died in 1950, was buried with their sister-in-law Martha Jones, but her name was not included in the marker.

Randy Montgomery of Valley Monument Company in San Gabriel designed, made and donated the grave markers. He included a porcelain image of both sisters, along with symbols of their life’s work, a caduceus for Sophia and the emblem of the Colored Women’s Club for Anna. Their sister Emily’s name was added to the marker for their sister-in-law Martha.

Lupe Delreal, general manager at Live Oak Memorial Park, said the park will maintain the newly-marked graves, which lie in what was once the segregated section of the 138-year-old cemetery.

Rev. James Price, pastor of Omega Seven Ministries in Long Beach, is married to Dolly, a Jones descendant. The couple live in Carson. Price led the dedication of the new memorials.

“You see the kind of work they did to help so many people,” Price said. “When all is said and done, that’s what we’re here for, to help other people, to change lives and make wrongs right. We live our lives and sometimes people never know what you do. But they made a difference.”

La Pedtra Singleton is president of the Anna H. Jones Club, which the educator founded in Monrovia 104 years ago. The group awarded nine students a total of $9,400 in scholarships last year, Singleton said.

Carolyn Barnes, a lawyer who works pro bono for Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles, said the high school scholarship she received from the Anna H. Jones Club gave her the confidence to pursue a career. Hers is only one measure of the difference the Jones sisters have made in countless lives.

“Are you making a difference? That’s how you keep up with the Joneses,” Barnes said.

Ron Husband, the first African American animator and supervising animator at Walt Disney Studios, said he and his wife LaVonne both received scholarships from the Anna H. Jones Club.

“I was just an average student and it really surprised me that they saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself,” said Husband, who lives in San Dimas but remains a member of Second Baptist Church. “This scholarship was really a blessing to me, growing up in a poor family, a single mom, I couldn’t see myself going to college until that scholarship.”

He attended Citrus College and the University of Nevada before getting hired at Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1975.

Burud said the sisters’ achievements can be directly linked to their remarkable father, James, a renowned gunsmith who ensured  his children, including his four daughters, would earn college degrees. James said he remembers his only sister was not allowed the educational opportunities given to him and his brothers.

The Jones’ grandfather Allen bought his family out of slavery and founded a school for former slaves in Raleigh, North Carolina that was repeatedly burned down. They moved to Ohio, where the Jones sons completed their college education. James and his wife Emily later moved to Canada, where they raised their six children.

“They’re such a good example and I admire their stamina and perseverance,” Wrice said. “They fought with less resources, surely we can fight back. They’re just an inspiration.”

Other groups involved with the campaign include Monrovia Historical Museum, Monrovia Historical Preservation Group, Monrovia Duarte Black Alumni Association, and Volunteer Center of San Gabriel Valley.