Landon Y. "Lanny" Jones Jr.

Jones, Landon Y. "Lanny", Jr.

80, writer, editor, and beloved family member and citizen of Princeton, New Jersey, died on Saturday, August 17. He will be missed by all who knew his lively and generous spirit.

Born in Rome, Georgia, raised in St. Louis, and a longtime resident of Princeton, Lanny spent his adult life on the East Coast, with an eye on the American West. He was known for his boundless energy, his unfailing generosity, and his insatiable appetite for meeting new and interesting people, while maintaining innumerable friendships and deep family connections.

Lanny graduated from Saint Louis Country Day School in 1962. He came east to Princeton University, graduating in 1966, and continued on to Time Inc. in New York City. He returned to Princeton to edit the Princeton Alumni Weekly from 1969-1974. He then rejoined Time Inc., ultimately serving as Managing Editor of both Money and People magazines. In 2015, he was awarded the Time Inc. Lifetime Achievement Award.

Lanny's first nonfiction work, Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation (1980), popularized the term "baby boomer" and was nominated for the American Book Award in Nonfiction. He published two books relating to Lewis and Clark: William Clark and the Shaping of the West (2004) and The Essential Lewis and Clark (2000). In his final published book, Celebrity Nation: How America Evolved Into a Culture of Fans and Followers (2023), Lanny explored the celebrity culture he played a role in developing at People.

Lanny was a cheerleader for his family and friends to the end. He was a steadfast supporter of his children and gifted at eliciting a laugh from his grandchildren. With his diagnosis of myelofibrosis and subsequent ordeal of his 2019 bone marrow transplant, Lanny became increasingly aware of the fleeting nature of his time with his family. He never once finished a holiday toast with a dry eye.

Lanny is survived by his wife of 54 years, Sarah Brown Jones; their three children, Rebecca J. (Christian) Urciuoli, Landon Y. (Beth Vaccaro) Jones III, and Catherine ("Cassie") M. (Mark Wethli) Jones; six grandchildren; and brothers Charles E. (Carol Ann) Jones and Byron W. (Julie Morrison) Jones.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Landon Y. Jones '34 Financial Aid Fund at the Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School.