Lifetime Achievement in Business: Carol Jones

Carol Jones

She struggled to complete high school. Yet Carol Jones had what it took to start the largest real estate agency in southwest Missouri.

Jones was a working mother when she first began selling real estate for Jones & Company, Realtors, a company she started in 1967 with her husband, Jim Jones. When they divorced in 1983, Jones found that she not only needed to rebuild her life, she needed to rebuild her career.

In a leap of faith, she sold her house, hired five agents and founded Carol Jones, Realtors. The company grew quickly, and in 1988 she added a commercial real estate division called CJR Commercial.

Carol Jones, Realtors, continued to grow, and in 1990 she built a new headquarters office on South National. In 1994, she sold the company but returned to manage it last year.

"I traveled a lot during the six years I was gone, but I wasn't happy," she said. "I cried every day. It was like someone had died. I just missed running the company that much."

These days, Jones is savoring the feeling of being back at the helm. She's also committed to taking her company to the next level. Her goal: To be the first company in Springfield to sell a billion dollars worth of real estate in one year.

In addition to building a successful business, Jones has served on the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and the Missouri State Bank Board. She also is a founding member of Springfield Trust Company.

In 1992, Jones was named the Business Leader of the Year by Junior Achievement, and in 1997 she started the Carol Jones Women's Recovery Center in Springfield, a residential substance-abuse treatment center. Two years later, the Springfield News-Leader recognized her as one of "100 Ozarkers Who Shaped Our Future," and last year, she received an honorary doctorate from Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield.

"Carol is one of the kindest, most compassionate people I know," said Myles Noennig, chief financial officer for Carol Jones, Realtors. "She's gotten where she is because she knows how to energize people."