Mr. Charles T. Jones, 78, Jonesborough, passed away Sunday, May 4, 2025, of heart failure at Johnson City Medical Center.

Mr. Jones was born October 30, 1946, in Goldsboro, N.C., to the late Talton and Anne Eloise Stevens Jones.

An artist from a very young age, Charles, was above all, a painter. He attended East Carolina University where he studied sculpture with Robert Edmiston and painting with Francis Speight, receiving a BFA in 1968. After a stint in the army, he studied painting with Alden Mason and Michael Spafford at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he received an MFA in 1974. From that time until 2003, he lived and worked in Seattle. He showed extensively, in Seattle, as well as in the Tri-Cities area of East Tennessee.

In 2003, he and his wife, Heidi Ehle, moved to Jonesborough, Tenn., where his wife still resides.

Charles was a versatile musician, playing guitar, banjo and pedal steel, and singing in numerous groups during his life, from honky-tonk bands, to bluegrass, and in a folk duo with his wife as the Sweetwater Troubadours.

Keenly intelligent, well read and diverse in his interests which ranged from crossword puzzles to baseball, Socrates to Renaissance painting and from ballet to Mozart to Merle Haggard. Charles was a fountain of creativity and a kind, skilled, hardworking, steady man who was loved and respected by many. He was gracious and gentle, with a wry sense of humor right up until his death. Children and animals were instantly drawn to him. He will be sorely missed.

Survivors include his wife, Anne Hyde Ehle (Heidi), Jonesborough; daughter, Hannah Jones of Olympia; sister, Martha Jones of Crossville, Tenn.; brother, Alan Jones of Raleigh-Durham; and nephew, Colin Jones of Johnson City. He was preceded in death by brother, Howard Jones.

No memorial has been scheduled at this time.

Condolences may be sent to the family online at www.dillow-taylor.com

Dillow-Taylor Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Jonesborough, Tennessee 423-753-3821