Ken Jones

Ken Jones, born on March 26, 1930, is a native of Presho, South Dakota. His father John was a realtor and his mother worked in the home. He had two siblings, one of which would someday be a federal judge. It must have been interesting at the dinner table. His father was a New Deal FDR fan, and his mother was a Republican in a Republican state. Kenfollowed the latter and “accidentally” served in the South Dakota legislature from 1974-78. All of the younger men were in the service in the 1940’s and Ken had a choice of jobs. His first was fixing fences and bundling hay. The family owned 500-600 acres of ground and that interested Ken to the point that he wanted to someday be a farmer. After graduating from Presho High School in 1948, he enrolled at SDSU and took two years of ag courses. He took a short break with the intent of farming with his brother. (His father died at about that time too.) After working the farm out of his system, he returned to a book life of math and science. He may have been partially inspired to become a pharmacist because he roomed with a pharmacy student from Tripp. As a result of a ROTC commission, Ken entered the Army in 1953. Just prior to that, he married Loretta Aisenbrey on March 22, 1953. They raised three children. There was an active plan to protect physicians from the front-line, so pharmacists were sent to the front lines as medics. However, “I got pulled out to run the pharmacy at Ft. Riley.” He had many additional duties, and it was a lot of work, but he enjoyed it. He was even defense counsel for a court martial! After his discharge in 1955, he worked six months at Yankton Drug Co. in Yankton to gain his license, and then he purchased his own pharmacy in Valley Springs, South Dakota. He loved owning his own business and after Harold Tisher called him in 1958, he bought out Harold’s partner and moved to Yankton as of July 1958. The two were good friends and leaders in the Yankton community. Ken was also a leader in his profession, having served on the S.D. Board of Pharmacy. The Board was instrumental in the creation of the dosage system. Their hard work has prevented many medication mistakes. Ken bought Harold’s interest in 1972 and, after many years of working part-time at the YMC Pharmacy, he officially retired in 2015. Ken has an infectious laugh which he warmly shares with his friends and family. His hobby has been a return to farming southwest of Armour. Most of the farming, however, is keeping an eye out for pheasants.