Dayton native, Hollywood actress, dead at 82

DAYTON — A Dayton native who was a respected Hollywood actress has passed away.

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Barbara O. Jones died Tuesday at the age of 82 at her home in Dayton, her brother, Raymon Minor, told the Hollywood Reporter.

She emerged from the L.A. Rebellion movement of Black filmmakers at UCLA in the 1970s and starred in Haile Gerima’s Bush Mama and Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust.

“Rest In Peace & Power,” Dash wrote on social media.

Jones was billed as Barbarao, Barbara-O, and BarbaraO throughout her career, the Hollywood Reporter said.

She also appeared alongside Muhammad Ali in the 1979 TV movie, “Freedom Road,” according to imdb.com.

Jones graduated from Roosevelt High School, where her mother, Alberta, was a business teacher, the Hollywood Reporter stated.

She was also a local radio personality in the 1960s, who went by the name of Bobbie Montgomery.

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Several tributes have poured in following Jones’ death.

Jonathan McNeal, owner of The Neon, offered his condolences on social media.

“To me, she’s O,” he wrote on The Neon’s Facebook page. “Her calls both grounded and elevated me…and though it’s been a while since she’d phoned, I can still hear her voice. Her earthly presence will be missed, but she will continue to lift us.”

The Cohen Media Group, an Academy Award-winning independent theatrical distribution and production company, called Jones “a brilliant actress.”

“Rest in Peace & Power, Barbara O. Jones, they said in a statement on social media. “The star of Julie Dash’s DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST—a landmark film we’re honored to have in our catalogue—was a brilliant actress. Today, the world’s a little smaller, a little dimmer with her passing.”

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