Best Selling Author
Touchstone Blessings and Legacy of ‘Family’
Linda Eatmon-Jones, an award-winning author, was a creative nonfiction writer, whose biographies depicted the touchstone blessings and legacy of her immediate and extended families.
Her writings provided an intimate look inside Linda’s special enduring relationship with her husband, Earle Jones, built upon a rock-solid foundation of mutual love, trust and respect –family values – and a strong Christian faith. Her work also revealed how both her and Earle’s parents encouraged their children to be industrious, take responsibility for their own lives, and for each to acquire quality formal education. Each of them was instilled with the understanding: to always place a strong value on family, faith and community involvement.
Buoyed by recurring touchstone themes of valuing one’s family and personal resilience, Linda’s three books also let readers become personally acquainted with the unsung heroes and heroines she wrote about. These heroes and heroines represent the roots and branches of this remarkable and successful Black American family.
About the Author
Linda Eatmon-Jones
About the Author
Linda Eatmon-Jones
The late Linda Eatmon Jones was an award-winning author and accomplished executive in both the private and public sectors – her education, determination and ability to overcome obstacles made her both an exemplary student and inspired advocate of self-empowerment. Linda had a distinguished professional career that included working at IBM, the Pension Guaranty Corporation and Fannie Mae. She also ran several non-profit organizations – DC Cash in Washington, D.C.; The Fairfax Partnership for Youth, Crisis Link Foundation; and the Koinonia Foundation – all based in Northern Virginia.
Linda’s true focus in life was family, church and community. She was an incredible force of nature in connecting with people and making them feel welcome in her home. She was an excellent event planner who used her gifts and skills to host incredible Christmas parties in her homes in Chantilly and Vienna. She helped friends organize and host their birthday and anniversary parties and weddings. Her hard work, attention to detail and creativity were all founded in her strong personal ethics and determination to do things the right way. She was never too busy to talk to anyone, or to help them. One friend described her as the “Love Connector” because of her incredible smile, warm hugs and words of encouragement.
Linda learned horticulture and landscaping from her grandfather, MT (Pa) Britt. Her homes were aesthetic marvels of trees, shrubs, flowers and lawns. She was the family gardening expert, and friends relied on her to help them in their own landscaping work. She also was a master home decorator. Her and Earle’s homes were tastefully and warmly furnished. Many family pictures and souvenirs reflected Linda’s various travels – and personal taste and touch. Her Christmas decorations annually transformed the Jones’ home into a “Winter Wonderland.”
Linda’s love for family made her the matriarch of her and Earle’s families. Linda was a key connector for family reunions. According to Earle, her powerful and ethical guidance, grounded in biblical scripture, is what made her a great spouse, mother, grandmother, aunt and big sister. Her steady hand helped guide her son Stephen to become a church pastor and family man in his own right.
Later in her life, Linda used her advice of not being afraid to do something new to become an award-winning author. Linda published three books, all inspired by common touchstone themes of the blessings, joys and legacy of family, as well as turning challenges and obstacles into successes. The first of Linda’s books, “Touchstone of Resilience,” won the 23rd Annual Colorado Independent Publishers Association Merit Award in the Biography category in 2017. The book was republished in 2023 and is a tribute to Earle and his family legacy – and their over-arching pursuit of building a better life through attaining formal educations.
In 2018 Linda wrote and published “Thank You Daddy,” a book written in honor of her father, George Harrell, who adopted Linda and provided her with a strong father figure. In 2019, Linda wrote and published “Touchstone of Determination – True Grit,” which is the personal story of Dr. James Mitchell, the president of Wallace Community College in Selma, Ala. In addition to her three books, Linda regularly published blogs on self-empowerment. Linda is loved and remembered by her family, community and those who knew her, not only as an accomplished corporate executive and caring community citizen, but as a loving and beloved daughter, sister, wife, mother and grandmother.
Bending but not breaking
Touchstone of Resilience
Touchstone of Resilience is the first in Linda’s book series “Touchstones for Impact.” This book is about the legacy created by Samuel Jones, the grandfather of her husband Earle, and his refusal to become a victim of the Ku Klux Klan’s ferocity in the 1920s. This courageous patriarch’s unwavering will and resiliency to not break, while having to bend, to the storms of the Klan’s fiery racist attack, saved his family – and made it possible for future generations to succeed. Family descendants continued a determined and rewarding path of gaining and letting education guide their destinies. The family mantra became: Education is the road map to becoming a life student, compassionate friend, accomplished professional and caring world citizen. It also is a bulwark to help one weather life’s storms. The essays written in this book by family, friends and colleagues, enable readers to vicariously, but personally, get to know Earle and Linda like family. Strong family ties and values, and resiliency in the face of adversity, are shared Touchstones for physically, emotionally and spiritually healthy people – worldwide.
Significant Life Lessons
Thank you Daddy
“Thank You Daddy” is a book in the Touchstones for Impact series – A Touchstone of Selflessness. The book is Linda’s very thoughtful and read on an underserved topic – adoption and the selflessness of a man who stepped in to raise Linda, another man’s child, as his own.
In this story, Linda presents 12 powerful lessons and teachable moments that she learned from “Daddy” which helped her build a solid foundation for a successful life. Each of “Linda’s lessons,” has an excellent digestible blend of anecdotes and relatable elements to entice and reward the reader.
True Grit
A Touchstone of Determination - True Grit
“A Touchstone of Determination – True Grit” is a story of one man’s career journey from North Carolina by way of Florida, ultimately to the Black Belt of Alabama. This the personal story of Dr. James Mitchell, who is the President of Wallace Community College in Selma, Ala. Dr. Mitchell was driven by his dreams, vision and determination to transform the education and economic trajectory of Blacks along the way. Due to his own economic circumstances earlier in life, he never wanted education to be outside the reach of any child.
The challenges, opposition and resistance he encountered during his first decade in the Black Belt would have driven less-determined souls to give up. Dr. Mitchell persevered, even as he confronted all the stereotypical studies and the age-old civil rights programs that were not a good fit for the times or the place. He “poked the bear of change” and won. Most of his innovative programs at Wallace Community College Selma were the first in the state.