By Matt Leingang
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Virginia Kunkle Jones, who helped her husband turn a run-down hotel in Lebanon into a nationally known inn and restaurant, died Friday. She was 99.

Mrs. Jones was the owner of the Golden Lamb Inn, which has stood in the Warren County seat at Broadway and Main Street since 1803 and is Ohio's oldest continuously operating inn.

But it was far from its legendary status today when Mrs. Jones' husband, the late Robert Jones, bought the building in 1926.

Married two years later, the couple began an extensive renovation. Their design taste - antique collectibles and Shaker furniture - gave the inn its ornate look.

But it was Mrs. Jones' bookkeeping skills that got the business through the Great Depression and on the road to success, said her grandson, U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, a Republican from Terrace Park whose congressional district includes Warren County.

"The inn was a labor of love for them," said Portman, whose family still owns the building. "Their partnership was a business partnership but also a strong marriage."

Mrs. Jones, who died at the Seasons Retirement Community in Kenwood, last visited the Golden Lamb for dinner in 2003, Portman said. It remained a special place for her.

Mrs. Jones was born Feb. 14, 1905, in Springfield, Ohio.

"It was appropriate that she was born on Valentine's Day, because she had a lot of heart and gave a lot of love," Portman said.

After graduating from Wittenberg University in 1925, Mrs. Jones moved to Lebanon to teach high school. She met her future husband and spent the next three decades restoring the Golden Lamb to prominence.

The four-story brick structure, which began as a log tavern, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Ruth Pierce, the inn's first gift shop manager, recalled Mrs. Jones' thoughtfulness and generosity toward employees.

"After a long day, she'd send food home with me," Pierce said. "She said, 'Here, take these steaks and baked potatoes. You've worked so hard. The last thing you need to do is go home and cook.'"

In 1969, the Joneses retired from innkeeping, leasing the inn to the Comisar family, which owns Cincinnati's five-star Maisonette. The Comisars continue to operate it today.

Mr. Jones died in 1996, and the couple's only child, Joan Jones Portman, died in 1994.

"It's very hard to have outlived both of them, but I have some beautiful memories," Mrs. Jones told the Enquirer in 2000.

Mrs. Jones also is survived by her son-in-law, William C. Portman of Cincinnati; two grandchildren, William C. Portman III of Cincinnati and Virginia Portman Amis of Minneapolis; and nine great-grandchildren.

A memorial service is scheduled for 4 p.m. Monday at the Lebanon Presbyterian Church. Memorials may be made to the Warren County Historical Society, 105 S. Broadway, P.O. Box 223, Lebanon, OH, 45036, or to the Robert and Virginia Jones Fund of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation, 200 W. Fourth St., Cincinnati, OH 45202.

E-mail mleingang@enquirer.com

Lives remembered