THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 24, 1996 TAG: 9606240045
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 64 lines
While lawyers for a murder suspect and the victim's relatives wrangle over the body, friends and associates of Megan Jones quietly savored her memory during services Sunday at the theater where she once performed.
Nearly 80 people filed into the Little Theatre of Norfolk on Claremont Avenue on a hot summer's day to hear nearly a dozen people - mostly fellow performers - recall Jones as a warm, supportive friend, one who could be offbeat, funny and demanding as well.
Jones and her husband, psychiatrist Tobin Jones, who is now in jail charged with her mid-May slaying, were frequent performers in local Little Theatre productions.
On Sunday, people like Little Theatre President Leslie Draper, and director and performer David Burton remembered the woman as a versatile actress, dancer and costume maker.
She was a member of the Little Theatre board, Draper said, and was its costume mistress.
``Megan loved angels,'' Draper told the gathering. ``I used to tease her about being my guardian angel - now she's somewhere else. I'm sure she's here today in spirit.''
Burton called Jones a consummate professional who was as believable as a saloon girl or a European princess in a production of ``The Unsinkable Molly Brown.'' Whatever troubles she experienced in her last days, Burton added, ``I feel she has found peace.''
Navy enlisted woman Cynthia Tademy, also a Little Theatre trouper, said Jones was one of two friends in South Hampton Roads who have died recently. The first death left her depressed, she said. Jones' death caused an entirely different reaction.
``I was very angry at first,'' Tademy said, ``but Megan wouldn't want me to be angry.''
To longtime friend Glenn Coats, Megan Jones' passing somehow changed his thinking about the finality of death. ``I finally realized that Megan is alive - right here,'' he said, tapping his chest.
The memorial service was organized by Draper and the Little Theatre board in conjunction with amateur performing groups in Virginia Beach and surrounding communities.
Jones' body is in the custody of a local funeral home awaiting legal disposition.
On Friday, Circuit Judge Marc Jacobson delayed a decision on releasing the body to her family or ordering further testing to determine a cause of death as requested by her husband.
Jacobson said he needed more information, including input from the prosecutor's office, before making a decision.
The family of Megan Jones has asked the court to release the body after Tobin Jones refused to sign a release. Behind-the-scenes attempts at persuasion by family members have failed to change his mind.
Jones denies killing his wife and contends that cuts on her head found by the medical examiner would not have killed her. He wants independent drug testing on the body.
Megan Jones was killed sometime around May 12 - Mother's Day - police say. She was found a week later, wrapped in a rug in an upstairs bedroom at her Delaware Avenue home. ILLUSTRATION: VIRGINIAN-PILOT PHOTO
Friends of Megan Jones leave her memorial service Sunday afternoon
at the Little Theatre of Norfolk. by CNB