James Francis Marion Jones
(November 24, 1907 - August 12, 1971) U.S.A.
Preacher
Jones was born in Birmingham, Alabama, to the railroad brakeman and a school teacher. Already recognized as a prophet, at the age of six he joined and began preaching sermons to a Birmingham sect known as Triumph the Church and Kingdom of God in Church, similar in character to the one he later founded in Detroit. At 11 he quit school to devote full time to preaching.
He drew national attention with his extravagance and flamboyance during the 1940's and 1950's (called the "Messiah in Mink" by the Saturday Evening Post); every year he invited the press to his lavish eight-day birthday celebration called Philamathyu, during which he announced prophecies for the coming year (he predicted that "death and labour will vanish from the earth" in the year 2000).
When arrested on a morals charge in 1956 for making an "indecent proposal" to an undercover vice officer, the resulting trail and scandal harmed his ministry, and several attempted comebacks were failures.
Jones died of a heart attack at the home of a friend on LaSalle Boulevard in Detroit. His famous white mink coat was draped over his coffin at his funeral.
Photo source: http://www.detnews.com/history/prophet/prophet.htm
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