Retired L-69 officer races horses

“Sum Boilermaker” wins in Oklahoma

RETIRED L-69 BM-ST Donnie Ray Jones is living his dream, breeding and racing horses. A Boilermaker since 1976, Jones served two terms as the lodge’s top officer before calling it quits last year.

Photo by Gene Wilson & Associates
Retired L-69 BM-ST Donnie Ray Jones, front row, second from left, and his wife, Jackie (in red jacket) celebrate Sum Boilermaker’s first-place finish.
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But retirement didn’t mean Jones was ready to sit back in an easy chair. Instead, he stayed active at his farm in Romance, Ark., raising thoroughbreds. He entered several horses in races, and on Dec. 9, 2007, one of them put him in the winner’s circle. On that day, Sum Boilermaker streaked to the finish line to place first at the Blue Ribbon Downs in Sallisaw, Okla.

“Sum Boilermaker – what a great name!” Jones said. “As do all Boilermakers, my horse performed and gave me his all.”

Jones came early to his passion for horse racing, riding his uncle’s work horse when he was a young boy. “At age 16, I was an exercise jockey for a horse called Billy Bar Bull, which was the grandson of Man o’ War (a horse some consider to be the greatest thoroughbred of all time).”

Jones credits the Boilermakers’ union and its leadership throughout the years for the opportunity to earn a good living and fulfill his dream in retirement.