Orphaned at an early age, Fred Jones was born in Georgia but lived with his aunt in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he graduated from Business College. He came to Oklahoma City in 1916 to work in a new and major assembly plant of the Ford Motor Company. Following his service in World War I he returned to the plant and, in 1920, took charge of the Blackwell Ford dealership. He bought the store at Tonkawa in 1921 and a year later sold both dealerships and returned to Oklahoma City where he established a new dealership at 220 West Reno. By 1926, at the age of 34, Fred Jones was the largest Ford dealer in the southwest. As president of Fred Jones Industries, he owned Ford and Lincoln-Mercury dealerships in Oklahoma City and Tulsa and the Lincoln-Mercury dealership in Norman. When he died at the age of 79, Fred Jones Manufacturing Company in Oklahoma City was the largest of 29 authorized Ford remanufacturing companies in the nation.