Family, friends bid farewell to Delvin Jones

Staff

Published Thursday, January 30, 2003

Suffolk News-Herald

Hundreds of relatives, neighbors and friends turned out Wednesday to bid an emotional farewell to 14-year-old Delvin Lessell Jones, who died after falling into a frozen pond last week.

Many in the standing-room-only crowd, which overflowed outside T.E. Cooke-Overton Funeral Home, grew teary-eyed as the procession of young pallbearers - all teen-aged friends of the Forest Glen Middle School eighth-grader - led Jones' family into the chapel.

Delvin will be remembered as a young man full of energy and life, with a passion for playing all sorts of sports: Football, baseball, basketball, soccer and skating.

An honor-roll student, Delvin was smart and loved learning. His aunt, Bridgette "Aunt B.B." Flora, recalled her surprise at her nephew's extensive vocabulary when, at age 6, he told her he was "famished."

The King's Kids, a children's group to which Delvin belonged, sang a tribute in memory of their friend.

Jones died Friday several hours after rescuers pulled him from the frigid waters of a retention pond that backs up to Colander Bishop Meadows Apartments. He was in the 29-degree water for about an hour and 20 minutes after friends saw him fall through the cracked ice.

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