Napoleon and Mable Jones Scholarship

About Us

The Napoleon and Mable Jones Memorial Scholarship Foundation Inc. is a non-profit established in 2018 to help high-achieving, under-represented students reach their dream of higher education. Each year the organization awards a scholarship to a college-bound, graduating senior from Minden High School. The first award was presented in May 2019.

Named in honor of two long-time educators in the Webster Parish School system—Napoleon “N.A.” and Mable Jones—the Jones Memorial Scholarship not only recognizes worthy students but acknowledges some of the ones who helped open the path for today’s youth.  

N.A. Jones was the first African-American teacher to be hired at Minden High School, where he was a math teacher and school counselor.  After working at the school board offices for a few years, he returned to Minden High School, where he served as assistant principal until his retirement in 1990, after 40 years in the school system.

Mable White Jones began her career as the librarian at Webster High School right after college in 1948 and served in that same role until her retirement.  Her tenure as librarian spanned Webster’s transition from a high school to a junior high school in the late 1970s.

Both N.A. and Mable Jones highly valued education in their own lives and strove to help their students achieve their own educational dreams.  Mr. Jones held a bachelor’s degree from Bishop College and a master’s degree from Louisiana Tech University. Mrs. Jones held a bachelor’s degree from Texas College and a master’s degree from Louisiana State University.  She was one of the first African-American students to attend LSU and the very first African-American from Webster Parish to graduate from LSU.

“We wanted to honor the values our parents embraced as educators for many, many years,” said Sharon Jones Gauthier, one of the founders of the program.  “We hope the scholarship will keep their memory alive and inspire students to pursue higher education and go on to make a difference in the world as my parents did.”