Did anybody know Ronnie Jones from Monmouth, IL???

After replying to another post about my dad's first new car (62 Sport Fury convertible with a 361 4 bbl), I started thinking about a guy that dad used to talk about. He was the mechanic at dad's favorite dealership (Monmouth Chrysler Plymouth in Monmouth, IL).

Monmouth is mostly straight west of Chicago and slightly south, just 30 minutes from the Iowa border in Illinois. It's a small farm town in Illinois where everyone knows everyone else. My dad went to college there, and ordered his first car from there. Dad wanted a Sport Fury convertible with the 361 as he liked performance. The 361 was the largest big block offered in it at the time.

Dad doesn't like pushy salesmen and will walk away from them if they get too pushy. He went to a few dealers looking for a 361 Sport Fury, but the salesmen kept insisting that he wanted the one in stock with a 318. If they kept trying to push the in-stock one with a 318, he would just turn away and leave...

So dad goes into Monmouth Chrysler Plymouth and speaks with the owner's son, Dennis, and asks for a Sport Fury convertible with a 361. Dennis replied, "I'm sorry we don't have any of them in stock with a 361, but I would be happy to order one for you..."

So dad went into Dennis' office and they filled out the option sheet and placed the order. Six weeks later, dad gets a call from Dennis that the car is in, but they are not happy with the way it's running. If he's in a hurry he could pick it up tonight, but they would like to keep it another day to get it running better. So dad told them to call him tomorrow when it's ready.

When dad went to get it, it ran perfectly, no stumble or hesitations. :burnout: :burnout: :burnout:


Dad got to know Ronnie through the dealership, he was one of their top mechanics. Ronnie was well known around town for being an ace mechanic. If Ronnie couldn't fix it, nobody could. He used to tell my dad to bring the Fury to him before he took a trip back home so he could tune it to run with 'those city boys'...

The first time dad took the Fury home for a visit, grandpa (his dad) asked for the keys so he could take it for a test drive. Grandpa backed out of the driveway and left about a good 100 feet of rubber while pulling away from the house... :burnout:

Then comes back and says, "The car has a little bit of pick-up".... :violent1:


Ronnie was so good at fixing cars, whenever he was at the local drag strip, he spent more time in the pits fixing everybody's cars than he spent watching the racing. Everyone would ask Ronnie to, "Come over and take a look at my car...." He rarely got to watch the races... :banghead:

Dad had a few more good stories about Ronnie. but I wonder if anyone out there or their parents were around Monmouth at the time (early 60's) and knew of him...