Casey Jones - Other People Involved

Other People Involved

Jones' African-American fireman, Simeon T. Webb (born May 12, 1874), died in Memphis on July 13, 1957 at the age of 83. Jones' wife, Janie Brady Jones (born October 29, 1866), died on November 21, 1958 in Jackson at the age of 92. At the time of Jones' death at age 37, his son Charles was 12, his daughter Helen was 10 and his youngest son John Lloyd (known as "Casey Junior") was 4.

Jones' wife received $3,000 in insurance payments (Jones was "doubleheading" as a member of two unions, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, and had a $1,500 policy with each union) and later settled with the Illinois Central for an additional $2,650 (Earl Brewer, a Water Valley attorney who would later serve as Governor of Mississippi, represented her in the settlement). Other than these payments Mrs. Jones received nothing as a result of the wreck or Jones' service with the railroad, as the Railroad Retirement Fund was not established until 1937.

Jones' wife said she never had any thought of remarrying. She wore black nearly every day for the rest of her life.

Jones' tombstone in Jackson's Mount Calvary Cemetery gives his birth year as 1864, but according to information his mother wrote in the family Bible, he was born in 1863. The tombstone was donated in 1947 by two out-of-town railroad enthusiasts who accidentally got his birth year wrong. Until then, a simple wooden cross had marked his grave.