100 Years Ago: Cordelia Jones Returns Home from the Vaudeville Circuit

ALTON - An article in the Alton Evening Telegraph on July 30, 1925, mentioned that Cordelia Jones, “who for years was Alton’s most popular one-man band,” was back home for a two-week vacation after being on the road for nearly a year. “Twenty years ago, Cordelia Jones was the most popular of pianists for society dances in Alton. She continued her popularity here, but she decided to go away from her old home and take up a life of travel, letting her music pay the expenses.” She left Alton for Hollywood in August 1924, where she played piano for star-studded parties. She then travelled on the Pantages vaudeville circuit through large cities of the west, north, and east. The Telegraph article noted that she was enjoying the tour, but that she had lost about 30 pounds during her travels. Jones stayed with her parents, Louis and Jennie Jones, on Easton Street and planned to rejoin the vaudeville company in Duluth after her Alton visit. However, Cordelia’s brother, Connie, was ill when she visited, and Cordelia ended up remaining in Alton instead of rejoining the vaudeville circuit. Connie died in November 1925 at the age of 44.

Starting in the late 1890s, Cordelia Jones, on her own or with the Cordelia Jones Orchestra, played at dances, riverboat excursions, New Year’s Eve parties, picnics, and other events all over Alton, Wood River, Springfield, Carlinville, and beyond.

Composer and pianist Scott Joplin, “The King of Ragtime,” came to Alton to visit Jones in 1906. One thing that the 1925 article does not mention is that Jones was African American. She performed across the color line, but dedicated time to important causes in the Black community. During the Alton School Case lawsuits from 1897 to 1908 (The People of the State of Illinois, ex rel., Scott Bibb vs. The Mayor and Common Council of the City of Alton), Jones helped fight against school segregation by performing at fundraising events.

Cordelia Jones is buried in the Alton Cemetery with her mother, father, and brother. Marisa Puller portrayed Cordelia Jones in Vintage Voices five years ago. Here is the video from one of her 2020 performances.

Special thanks to Dr. Shirley Portwood for introducing me to Cordelia Jones through her work on the Alton School Case, and Mary Z. Rose, librarian at the Madison County Historical Society Archival Library, for highlighting Jones’s story in a 2020 article that inspired Jones to be chosen for Vintage Voices that year.

Sources

“Connie Jones Dies After Surgical Operation.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), November 10, 1925.

“Cordelia Jones Back Home For Vacation.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), July 30, 1925.

“Noted Career As Musician For Alton Dancers Ends In Death of Cordelia Jones.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), March 1, 1930.

Portwood, Shirley J. “School Segregation in Southern Illinois: The Alton Case, 1897-1908.” Illinois History Teacher, Vol. 12, No. 1 (2005): 23-32,https://www.lib.niu.edu/2005/iht1210523.html

Portwood, Shirley. “‘We Lift Our Voices in Thunder Tones’: African American Race Men and Race Women and Community Agency in Southern Illinois, 1895-1910.” Journal of Urban History 26, no. 6 (September 2000): 740–58.

“River front at St. Louis, Mo.” St. Louis, Missouri, 1903. Photograph. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-71278https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2013646350/

Rose, Mary Z. “Cordelia Jones.” Madison County Historical Society, 2020.https://madcohistory.org/online-exhibits/musical-madison-county/cordelia-jones/

More like this:

100 Years Ago: Alton Schools Host Music Memory Contest

2 days ago

100 Years Ago: Alton Dog Show Draws Crowd (and Dogs) From Across the Country

Mar 29, 2026

100 Years Ago: Bear Cubs Die at Alton Tire Store

Mar 8, 2026

100 Years Ago: Charles F. Zeuch Reweds First Wife Weeks After His Second Wife's Death

May 3, 2026

100 Years Ago: Famous Ventriloquist and Alton Native Dies

Apr 26, 2026