WINTER HAVEN -- Mrs. Thelma H. Jones, a retired teacher, curriculum specialist, assistant principal and principal at Southwest Elementary and Dundee Elementary schools, died of heart complications Sunday (Feb. 26, 2006) at Winter Haven Hospital. She was 87.Born in Wasioto, Ky., on July 4, 1918, she was the oldest of seven children. After graduating from high school in Bell County, Ky., she was offered her first job -- teaching in a one-room, wooden schoolhouse near her home. According to her family, one of the sweetest pictures they have is a photo of their mother with her 23 students of different ages, including two of her younger brothers.Mrs. Jones attended Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Ky., and later obtained her bachelor's and master's degrees in education from George Peabody College for Teachers at Vanderbilt University. She received an Ed.S. from the University of South Florida.Her career as an educator was interrupted during World War II to work for Bell Aircraft in Atlanta, where she and two sisters inspected bombers that were being built. While in Atlanta, she married her high school sweetheart, Lloyd W. Jones, in 1947. After 56 years of marriage, he died in 2004.Mrs. Jones came to Tampa in 1961 and to Winter Haven in 1965, continuing her career as an educator at Southwest Elementary in Lakeland and Dundee Elementary. Mrs. Jones established several scholarships to Christian schools.She was a member of the alumni associations of the universities where she received her degrees. She was a member of the Polk Education Association, the National Education Association and the Retired Teachers Association of Polk County. She was a Christian.Mrs. Jones is survived by her daughter, Lynnis Mincey, Winter Haven; brother, Clavis M. Hoskins, Jacksonville; sister, Nellie M. Hoskins, Middlesboro, Ky.; four grandchildren; six greatgrandchildren.Memorial services will be held later.In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to childhood programs at First Baptist Church of Lake Alfred. Steele's Family Funeral Services, Winter Haven.