Elizabeth Orton JONES, a children’s book author and illustrator and a long time resident of Mason, was affectionately nicknamed “Twig” by Masonians after one of her books, “Twig.” (Many folks did not know her by any other name) Elizabeth was born June 25, 1910 in Highland Park, Ill. Educated at the University of Chicago, Ph. B. in 1932, Ecole des Beaux Arts, Fontainebleau, France, diploma, 1932, she also attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1932. Twig was the winner of the CALDECOTT MEDAL in 1945 for illustrating “Prayer for a Child” written by Rachel Field.

Twig was instrumental in organizing the Mason Historical Society, keeping records, doing research, teaching Mason history in the school, cemetery preservation, writing historical pageants, collecting old stories, taping conversations with old-timers, and assisting in TV programs and films photographing in Mason. This spunky lady was the editor of the “Mason Bicentennial, 1768-1968”

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