Eugene Patterson Jones was born on January 26, 1893, in Lenoir, North Carolina. Jones was a munitions worker at the E. J. DuPont Company in Hopewell, Virginia, in June 1917 when he registered for the military draft for World War I. He served as a 2nd lieutenant in the 113th Field Artillery from August 1917 to February 1918, when he transferred to the Marine Corps. With the Marines, Patterson saw combat in the Meuse-Argonne and served as part of the army of occupation following the armistice. He returned home in July 1919. He died in Lenoir on October 2, 1958.