Joseph Talmage Jones, or J. Talmage Jones, was born on December 2, 1915, in Graham, Arizona, to Edna Cynthia Layton and Doctor Byron Jones. Vera Jean Noyes was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on June 8, 1919. They were both involved in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints their entire lives. J. Talmage was baptized a member of the Church on April 5, 1924. He was ordained in the priesthood of the church as a deacon on December 4, 1927, a priest January 15, 1933, an elder May 5, 1935, and finally as a high priest on February 27, 1949. J. Talmage Jones married Vera Jean Noyes on June 20, 1940, in Mesa, Arizona. They had seven children during their marriage. J. Talmage was the bishop of the Las Flores Ward from May 1950-March 1953, later serving as a counselor in the Pasadena Stake Presidency to the Stake President Howard W. Hunter who would later become the 14th president of the church. He was called as the mission president of the Western Canadian Mission and served from 1964-1967 with Vera Jean. He later served a second time as a mission president from 1980-1983 in the Singapore Mission. In 1967 he was called to serve as the Regional Representative of the Quorum of the Twelve in the Los Angeles East and Long Beach areas. He worked as a leader and advisor to stake presidents in Southern California, while also supervising the planning of youth activities and musical festivals in the Los Angeles area. He served in this calling from 1967-June 1974 and then again from July 1977-October 1979. During the last years of J. Talmage’s life he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. He died on January 31, 1990, in Redlands, California, at the age of 74, and was buried in San Gabriel, California. Vera Jean died on June 9, 2004, in Provo, Utah, at the age of 85, and was buried in San Gabriel, California.