lit a candle 5 Sept 2026Cooter was on every Friday night at my grandpa's house. He'd make fried chicken and we'd watch together. That man made me smile for forty years straight.
Their story
Benjamin Lewis "Ben" Jones was an American actor, politician, writer, and businessman whose bearded mechanic Cooter Davenport on The Dukes of Hazzard made him a fixture of 1980s television, and who later won two terms in the U.S. House from Georgia before building the Cooter's Place museum franchise with his…
Benjamin Lewis "Ben" Jones was an American actor, politician, writer, and businessman whose bearded mechanic Cooter Davenport on The Dukes of Hazzard made him a fixture of 1980s television, and who later won two terms in the U.S. House from Georgia before building the Cooter's Place museum franchise with his wife Alma Viator.
Jones was born in Edgecombe County near Tarboro, North Carolina, to Hubert C. "Buck" Jones, a railroad section foreman, and Ila Virginia Stephens. Within two weeks the family moved to Portsmouth, Virginia, living in a railroad company section house without indoor plumbing or electricity beside the Pinners Point railyard. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1959, entered East Carolina College in 1960, and in 1961 was admitted to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on the strength of his writing. At Chapel Hill he joined the Carolina Playmakers, worked summers on Southern railroad work trains, and in the 1960s took part in civil rights sit-ins; he later said he was arrested and twice attacked by the Ku Klux Klan.
After regional theatre in Atlanta, national tours with Eva Marie Saint, and film bits including Moonrunners (1975), the Gy Waldron bootlegger movie that seeded The Dukes of Hazzard, Jones was cast as Cooter when the CBS series began production near his Covington, Georgia home. From 1979 to 1985 he appeared across the show's seven seasons (about 141 episodes) as the garage mechanic and honorary Duke who pulled Bo and Luke out of jams. The show routinely drew tens of millions of weekly viewers. Jones later said the role helped pull him out of a self-destructive alcoholic period that had wrecked earlier marriages: "It was like being in a Beatles movie. Our lives changed."
In 1986 he ran as a Democrat for Georgia's Fourth Congressional District and lost narrowly to incumbent Pat Swindall. In 1988, after Swindall's perjury indictment, Jones won by about 20 points and was re-elected in 1990, serving 1989-01-03 to 1993-01-03 on Veterans' Affairs and Public Works and Transportation. Roll Call notes his socially liberal reputation, including floor opposition to a 1990 flag-desecration constitutional amendment: he asked which was worse, "the handful of demented malcontents who burn a flag," or amending the Constitution and putting "an asterisk on the Bill of Rights." After redistricting he lost a 1994 race to Newt Gingrich while filing ethics charges that contributed to Gingrich's later House reprimand. He later ran unsuccessfully against Eric Cantor in Virginia's 7th District (2002).
Jones returned to film (Primary Colors, Joe Gould's Secret) and Dukes reunion TV movies, then with Viator (married 1992) opened Cooter's Place Dukes museums and shops, first in Sperryville, Virginia, later Luray, plus Nashville and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. They produced fan festivals including a 2006 Nashville Dukesfest that drew over 100,000 people. He fronted Cooter's Garage Band across multiple albums and published his memoir Redneck Boy in the Promised Land in 2008.
In 2015, after the Charleston church massacre and Warner Bros. / TV Land moves against Confederate-flag merchandise and Dukes reruns, Jones publicly defended the battle flag on the General Lee's roof as "courage and family and good times," dismissing slavery associations as "political correctness" and "cultural cleansing," while citing his civil rights past and claimed NAACP membership. He served as International Chief of Heritage Operations for the Sons of Confederate Veterans (2014-2018 per Wikipedia). Critics and the NAACP rejected that framing; the controversy remains part of his public record.
Jones died on 9 August 2026 at home in Washington, Virginia, from a massive heart attack while resting in his favorite chair waiting for the Atlanta Braves to play the New York Yankees, Alma Viator announced on Facebook. He was 84, three weeks short of his 85th birthday. Tom Wopat and Catherine Bach posted tributes. A celebration of life for fans was held around his late-August birthday weekend at Cooter's in Luray. Resting place was not made public in major obituaries.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia Ben Jones (American actor and politician); AP News; Variety Jack Dunn 2026-08-09; NBC News; CNN; Hollywood Reporter Mike Barnes; Roll Call; People Tierney McAfee 2015; Rappahannock News; Coo.
In their own words
“I lost the love of my life today. Ben passed from a massive heart attack. He was home resting in his favorite chair waiting for the Braves to come on and whoop the Yankees.”
Alma Viator, Facebook death announcement, 9 August 2026
“The Dukes of Hazzard lost another integral part of their cast today. Ben Jones was a fine friend and a fierce advocate of all the best things we can offer in the entertainment business. He will be sorely missed.”
Tom Wopat tribute, 9 August 2026
“It was like being in a Beatles movie. Our lives changed.”
Ben Jones on Dukes fame, via AP
“The show reflects the values of the heartland of America. The good guys always win.”
Ben Jones on the show's values, Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP
“That flag on top of the General Lee made a statement that the values of the rural South were the values of courage and family and good times.”
2015 Confederate flag Facebook statement (People/Snopes)
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience.”
Catherine Bach recalling Jones's words, Instagram 11 August 2026
Photos
2Ben L. Jones, 101st Congress, 1989
by People Forever
Ben Jones with the General Lee outside Cooter's, Sperryville, VA, 1999
by People Forever
What a beautiful full circle. He'd have loved knowing that.