Ray Jones (1918-1996) was a Lampasas, Texas bootmaker widely regarded as one of the finest custom bootmakers in Texas history. Known as the "King of the Pegs," he produced roughly 1,000 pairs per year at his peak and estimated he made more than 45,000 pairs over his career. His boots were never labeled, but remain instantly recognizable by their white piping, signature toe stitching, and triple-row pegged shanks.
Ray Jones on the cover of the Dallas Times Herald Sunday Magazine, June 19, 1977. Photo via ShopTalk / Illume Magazine. Copyright status uncertain (Dallas Times Herald, now defunct); used for editorial reference.
Biography
Ray Alvin Jones was born January 3, 1918, in Francis, Oklahoma, the son of Richard Randolph and Effie Mae Fuller Jones. When Ray was six, his family moved to Dallas so his father, a carpenter, could work on the Dallas railroad (ShopTalk Magazine, 2021).
As a teenager, Ray ran away from home to learn saddle-making in New Mexico. After finishing high school during the Great Depression, he traveled through Mexico and into South America earning a living making Western-style saddles (ShopTalk Magazine, 2021).
Ray returned to Dallas and married his childhood sweetheart, Katherine Elizabeth Roper, on March 27, 1937. In November 1938 the couple opened a shop near the Lampasas Courthouse Square. Ray told a reporter at the time, "we were looking for ranch country where people really wore boots, really needed them" (ShopTalk Magazine, 2021). In 1946 he established a post-war shop on East 3rd Street, then in January 1953 moved to the Donovan Grist Mill property, which became the shop's permanent home (ShopTalk Magazine, 2021).
Ray initially made both saddles and boots. By the mid-1950s, a combination of historic Texas drought, the decline of working-horseback ranching, and the 1957 Lampasas Mother's Day flood that destroyed his saddlemaking supplies pushed him to focus exclusively on cowboy boots (Lampasas Dispatch Record).
During the 1970s, Ray and a small crew produced about 1,000 pairs of boots per year, attracted international clients, and carried a wait list that stretched to five years. Over half his production used genuine French calf for both tops and bottoms (Orion Calf Ltd). In 1980 Texas Monthly named him the best bootmaker in Texas.
Mrs. Jones hand-signed the inside of each boot top with the customer's name in her script -- one of the few ways to confirm provenance, since Ray never stamped or labeled his work (DimLights.com).
On February 15, 1983, both houses of the Texas Legislature passed resolutions recognizing Ray for establishing "one of the best-known and most successful shops of its kind in the state" and "preserving an important part of Texas's heritage" (S.R. No. 149 and H.R. No. 69). On March 18, 1983, Ray closed his shop at age 65. He estimated at the time that he had made more than 45,000 pairs since learning the trade as a teenager (ShopTalk Magazine, 2021).
Ray's apprentice Pablo Jass, who worked alongside him for twelve years and handled soles and shanks during the shop's peak production years, carried the Jones tradition forward in his own Lampasas shop after Ray's retirement (Texas Monthly, "Alive and Kicking," 2004). Other former workers, including Denzel Smith, also went on to make boots in the Jones style (Lampasas Dispatch Record).
Ray Jones passed away on March 10, 1996, at age 78.
Identifying a Ray Jones Boot
Ray never used brand stamps, labels, or markings inside his boots. Collectors and dealers rely on a consistent set of visual signatures:
- White piping along the side seams, pull straps, and collar, regardless of the boot's color
- "Toebug" stitching -- a distinctive toe-flower stitch pattern unique to Ray's shop
- Three rows of wooden pegs along the arch of each shank (up to 300 pegs per pair), earning him the nickname "King of the Pegs"
- Arrowhead-shaped tongue with a wide, tapered design
- Tapered ears that continue the white-stripe motif
- Signature collar stitching pattern
- Mrs. Jones's handwritten name of the original customer, signed in script on the inside of the boot top
Jones boots are also noted for their rigidity and structure. Collectors describe a distinctive "standy-uppy" quality -- the boots hold their shape even after decades of use (DimLights.com).
Why He Matters
- Jones is frequently cited by other bootmakers as the standard against which Texas custom bootmaking is measured -- described as "respected by those bootmakers respected by everybody else."
- His pegging technique, using up to 300 wooden pegs per pair in three rows along the arch, represents a construction method that has largely disappeared from commercial bootmaking.
- His legacy survives directly through Pablo Jass, who continues making boots in the Jones style in Lampasas, and through Zephan Parker, whose limited-edition "Ray Jones Boot" pays homage to the original design.
- The Texas Legislature's 1983 resolutions recognized Jones's role in preserving an important piece of Texas's craft heritage.
Sources
- ShopTalk Magazine, "Ray Jones: Texas's Greatest Bootmaker?"
- Texas Monthly, "Alive and Kicking" (September 2004)
- Lampasas Dispatch Record, "Bootmaking -- and wearing -- are Lampasas traditions"
- Orion Calf Ltd, "Keeping Up With The Joneses"
- DimLights.com, "Ray Jones Boots"
- KDH News, "Bootmaker's work requested worldwide"
- BillionGraves, Ray Alvin "Boots Ray" Jones