Sycamore Hills Students, Staff Memorialize Beloved Teacher

During her 27 year teaching career at Sycamore Hills Elementary School, Cynthia McHenry Jones was known for how much heart she gave to her students. In return, students, parents and Sycamore Hills staff remembered her with a symbolic heart of their own. On what would have been her 51st birthday, a heart-shaped bench was dedicated in her honor. Her family, friends, coworkers and students past and present gathered on the west side of the school for the September 22 unveiling – on the exact spot she occupied every day during dismissal.

“It’s our hope that this memorial serves as a reminder of those happier times and provides some level of inspiration and encouragement,” said Brad Jones, Cynthia’s husband.

Following her death last year on September 21- a day before she would have turned 50, heartbroken Sycamore Hills students and staff decided to do something special to honor her memory. Selling shirts, bracelets and memorial bricks, they raised the money for the bench.

Jones was a lifelong Independence resident and actually attended grade school at Sycamore Hills. Her parents also taught in the ISD and her family established the Cynthia McHenry Jones Memorial College Scholarship- awarded annually to a student whose life she touched. She taught third-grade, second-grade and kindergarten.

“We want this to be a tribute to every teacher that ever walked into an elementary classroom,” her father Bob told KMBC9 News.

To see the KMBC9 story, click here.