Sometimes, we can get complacent enough in our busy lives where we just don’t notice things we see every day. This has been the case for me when I travel on roads named after a person (dead or living). Lately, however, I have started looking into who the people are whose names are immortalized on our roadways.
This week, I look at Carl T. Jones Drive in Huntsville. It’s namesake lived a pretty amazing life, and was even dubbed “Mister Huntsville.”
Carl Tannahill Jones, a.k.a. ‘Mister Huntsville’
Carl Tannahill Jones justifiably earned the moniker “Mister Huntsville” during his lifetime. Jones came from a family that was one of the first white settlers in the Tennessee Valley, and his family helped develop and grow the city for most of the 20th century.
Jones was born in 1908 to George Walter Jones and Elvalena L. Moore, and was was the last of six kids. His father—farmer, civil engineer, state senator and a leader in Huntsville’s city government—established GW Jones & Sons engineering firm in 1886…