Etta Jones Hatton

Etta Carrie Garvie Jones Hatton answered the call of our Heavenly Father on February 2, 2026, at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, Maryland, after a brief final illness. Her only child, June Hatton Barr, was at her side and sang a hymn of Christian affirmation and assurance into her ear as she quietly transitioned from this life into the next. “Etta C”, as she was affectionately called, was born on October 17, 1923, in Craven County, North Carolina. She was the second child and first daughter of the four children born of the marriage of the widower Willie Jones and Eula Wilson Jones after the death of his beloved first wife. Etta C was baptized at an early age and was raised in a loving Christian home surrounded by family. She worked hard to support her loved ones, yet she still excelled in her studies during the Great Depression. After the start of World War II, she joined the military service. She was a member of the ground-breaking first class of the newly created USPHS Cadet Nurses Corps training in Community Hospital in Wilmington, North Carolina. Upon completion, she had the equivalent rank of 2LT. She then passed the requirements of state Boards of Examiners in more than one jurisdiction. This enabled her to carry the official designation of Registered Nurse (R.N.). As such, Etta C was one of the few African American women of her day to be credentialed. After World War II, Etta C moved to Washington, DC. She secured a position as a Registered Nurse at Gallinger Hospital (later called DC General Hospital). She remained there and served pediatric patients for decades. It was noted that she gave her heart to her little ones. At the time that she moved to Washington DC, the young nurses stayed in a dormitory for professional women. It was there that she met her future husband, Gerald W. Hatton, who handled recordkeeping and accounts at the front desk. By this time, it was about 1950. They married, and she followed him and joined First Baptist Church, Georgetown in West Washington, District of Columbia. They had one daughter, June, during their long marriage, which ended with his death in 2010. Etta C was an active member of First Baptist. Among other things, she was often engaged in projects to improve and beautify the edifice as a manifestation of personal respect for and worship of the presence of God. She was a Trustee, and a member and President of the Trustees’ Auxiliary. As such, she was active in the church's business and in the purchase of the church van, the first audiovisual systems, pew cushions, hymn books, the Abrams Annex, display cases, and other items. She loved church music. She sang and played the piano for Bible Study and church school. She was a member of Handbell Choir 2. She regularly prepared sandwiches for the noon Bible Study participants. She faithfully planted and watered the flowers outside the church. Finally, even well into her retirement, she served as a church nurse, always willing to assist others in times of need, and she sponsored Church programs on wellness. Etta C was a long-standing member of Queen of Sheba No. 2, Order of the Eastern Star. She was a member of the Disabled American Veterans Auxiliary Unit REA #5, through and under the United States Department of State. She was also a volunteer of the American Red Cross. Among professional organizations for Registered Nurses, she had been a member of the American Nurses Association (ANA), established for “graduate” nurses in 1896 as the “Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United States of America” and later renamed ANA in 1911. Her sister, Rosa Rhodes, and brothers, Linster V. Jones and Johnny Jones, have preceded her in death, as have the children of her father’s first marriage, whom she loved as siblings. Etta C leaves to rejoice in her memory her daughter June Hatton Barr, son-in-law Timothy D. Barr, grandson, Timothy Randolph (“Randy”) Barr, a host of dear nieces, nephews, cousins, and other relatives, her godchildren, her First Baptist family, and many kind and thoughtful friends, including the surviving children of her late North Carolina classmates, and special friends, Grace Knox and Julie Supkin.

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Etta Jones Hatton

October 17, 1923 - February 2, 2026