The Cowboys are a family affair, and owner Jerry Jones leads the way.
Jerry Jones family tree: Meet wife Gene, Cowboys executive kids Stephen, Charlotte and Jerry Jr. & more originally appeared on The Sporting News
The Dallas Cowboys are a family affair.
Jerry Jones is the de facto face of the franchise as the owner, general manager and the man everyone in the organization has to answer to, but he keeps all three of his children involved with key roles.
For better or worse, Jones has set up the Cowboys to remain under family control long-term as the franchise tries to climb back into Super Bowl contention.
Here's what you need to know about Jones' family, including the parents who raised him.
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Jerry Jones wife: Eugenia 'Gene' Jones
Jones married his college sweetheart, Eugenia "Gene" Chambers, in 1963. Gene attended the University of Arkansas along with Jerry, and she was named Miss Arkansas in 1960.
Flashback: Co-captain of the National Champion Arkansas Razorbacks Jerry Jones & his wife at homecoming in 1964 pic.twitter.com/3mpfpNRLFh
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) October 5, 2015
While Gene doesn't have a formal role with the Cowboys outside of serving as a steady hand next to her husband, she is active within the organization as a promoter of community engagement between the franchise and the fans.
Outside of football, Gene serves on the board of the Meadows School for the Arts and Texas Cultural Trust. She and Jerry are also members of the Dallas Center for the Performance of Arts' Founding Family Donor Program.
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Jerry Jones son: Stephen Jones
Jones' oldest son, Stephen, serves as one of the faces of the Cowboys' front office as chief operating officer and Executive Vice President & Director of Player Personnel.
While Jerry operates as Dallas' general manager, Stephen has a critical role in player acquisition for the Cowboys and is the likely successor to his father when it comes time to hand over day-to-day operations of the team.
Like his father, Stephen attended the University of Arkansas and played linebacker for the Razorbacks during the 1980s. He joined the Cowboys organization shortly after and is now one of the top voices within the front office.
Stephen is married to a woman named Karen and has four children.
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Jerry Jones daughter: Charlotte Jones Anderson
Jones' only daughter, Charlotte, serves as the Cowboys' executive vice president and chief brand officer.
While Anderson was born in Arkansas in 1966, she chose a different path than her father and older brother by attending Stanford University and earning a degree in human biology. She actually started out in politics as a staffer for a U.S. representative from Arkansas before joining the Cowboys.
According to the Cowboys, Anderson "has overseen all business operations, strategies and applications surrounding the team's brand as it is presented to fans worldwide" for the last three decades. That includes the organization's famous cheerleading squad, which reports to her. Additionally, Anderson serves as chair of the NFL Foundation and chair of the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation.
Anderson was married to a man named David Anderson for 28 years before their divorce in 2019. They have three children together.
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Jerry Jones son: Jerry Jones Jr.
Jones' youngest son, Jerry Jr., was born in 1969 and serves as the Cowboys' executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer.
Before joining the family business, Jerry Jr. earned an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and a law degree from SMU.
According to the Cowboys, Jerry Jr. oversees "the club's entire sales and marketing efforts, both those directed at the team's loyal fans as well as its corporate partners," and is responsible for the franchise's marketing and sales in addition to media ventures.
Jerry Jr. played a pivotal role in the planning and development of "The Star," the Cowboys' state-of-the-art training facility that opened in 2016, and he took a lead role in developing the facility's fitness center.
Jerry Jr. is married to a woman named Lori Lemon and has three children, including one from a previous relationship with actress Janine Turner.
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Jerry Jones grandchildren
Jones has 10 grandchildren — four from Stephen, three from Charlotte and three from Jerry Jr.
Haley Anderson, daughter of Charlotte, is a special project manager for the Cowboys' cheerleading team. Interestingly, she spent more than a year working for the Rams shortly after they moved to Los Angeles.
John Stephen Jones, son of Stephen, also works for the Cowboys as the team's manager of corporate partnership sales. He spent four seasons as a quarterback at Arkansas after winning two state championships in high school, attempting 35 passes for two touchdowns and two interceptions as a backup during his time with the Razorbacks.
Paxton Anderson, son of Charlotte, also played college football, spending time at the University of Texas as a wide receiver but playing sparingly between 2020 and 2023.
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Jerry Jones dad: J.W. 'Pat' Jones
Jones' father, J.W. "Pat" Jones," was born to a poor family but ultimately started his own insurance company and owned a grocery store named Pat's Supermarket in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Pat brought Jerry on as a leader at his insurance company, Modern Security Life, after he graduated from Arkansas. Pat also founded an animal safari park in Missouri, and the park still exists today as Wild Animal Safari under different ownership.
"My father was an innovator in business, someone who changed the way industries were run in three different fields — groceries, insurance, and tourism," Jerry told the Cowboys' website.
Jerry got his start as an insurance executive, but he followed in his father's footsteps and became an entrepreneur himself, starting a handful of ventures before finding success in the oil industry and purchasing the Cowboys for $140 million in 1989.
Pat, meanwhile, died in 1997 at the age of 76.
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Jerry Jones mom: Arminta Jones
Jones' mother, Arminta, was married to Pat for 56 years before his death in 1997.
Arminta helped Pat operate his many business ventures, with Jerry saying in her obituary that she served as her husband's bookkeeper, manager and salesperson.
Jerry credits his mother's instincts and emphasis on family with guiding him to success. "She was an educator who taught you the best things you couldn't learn at school," he told the Cowboys' website after she died.
Arminta Jones died in 2012, just a week after her 90th birthday.
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Where is Jerry Jones from?
Jones was born in Los Angeles, but his family moved to Arkansas when he was young. Jones attended North Little Rock High School, where he played running back before graduating in 1960.
After attending the University of Arkansas, Jones and his family moved to Springfield, Missouri, where the family's insurance company found a home. Jones' career started at the company, and he later returned to Arkansas to break into the oil industry.
Now, of course, the Jones family makes its home in North Texas, though Jones also spends time at a home in Destin, Florida.
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Category: Football