Audrey Jones Beck Papers and Memorabilia

Audrey Louise Jones Beck, daughter of Tilford and Audrey Thompson Jones, was born March 27, 1922. She was very close to her grandmother, Mary Gibbs Jones and step-grandfather, Jesse H. Jones, and spent much time traveling and spending time in Washington DC with them. She attended Kinkaid School in Houston from 1927 until graduation in 1939. She attended Mount Vernon College and the University of Texas at Austin and was already engaged to Ensign John A. Beck (Boehck) at the beginning of World War II when she and John decided to marry in the first military ceremony at Christ Episcopal Church. During the war she volunteered at the Aircraft Recognition Center for the Dept. of Defense and at the Hollywood Canteen in Los Angeles. She and John lived their first married years in Long Beach, CA, and after the war returned to Houston to amass a collection of impressionist paintings, donated in 1974 to the Museum of Fine Arts Beck Building as the John A. and Audrey Jones Beck Collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. She served on the boards of MFAH, Houston Endowment, Houston Grand Opera, Houston Ballet and Houston Symphony Society. She died on Aug. 22, 2003 and was buried in Houston's Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery.