Benjamin Lewis Jones, known to millions as Cooter Davenport on “The Dukes of Hazzard,” died Sunday at his home. He was 84. His wife, Alma Viator, said he suffered a massive heart attack while settling in to watch a baseball game.
Jones was born August 30, 1941, in Tarboro, North Carolina, and grew up in Portsmouth, Virginia, in a house near the docks that had no electricity or indoor plumbing for years. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1959, spent a year at East Carolina College, and went on to study radio, television and film at the University of North Carolina.
He landed the role of Cooter, Hazzard County’s mechanic and the man who ran the garage across from the sheriff’s office, and stayed with it for all seven seasons of the show, appearing in 141 episodes between 1979 and 1985. Fans knew his voice on the CB as well as his face: “Breaker one, breaker one, I might be crazy, but I ain’t dumb.” He also appeared in “The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings” and “Smokey and the Bandit.”
Jones left acting behind for a stretch to run for office, and served two terms representing Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1989 to 1993. He later returned to the character that made him famous, building Cooter’s Place into a string of museums and stores in Luray, Virginia, and Nashville and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and starting Dukesfest and Hazzard Homecoming so fans of the show would have somewhere to gather every year. He was integral in keeping the spirit of the show alive for current and future fans.
I got to meet him several times over the years, and every single time it felt like catching up with an old friend rather than meeting a celebrity. That was just who he was. He had a gift for putting people at ease, and you could talk to him about anything and he’d lean in like you were the most interesting person in the room. He was a natural storyteller, the kind who could turn a simple hello into a ten-minute conversation you didn’t want to end, and he clearly loved the fans who kept showing up to hear those stories, year after year.
He is survived by his wife, Alma, and his children, Rachel and Walker.
If you’d like to leave a remembrance of Ben, you can do so in our forums 👉🏼 https://hazzardnet.com/forums/topic/20148-rip-ben-jones/
August 10th and 11th, 2019, you can meet the cast of The Dukes of Hazzard, watch live stunt shows, and listen to live music at Shenandoah Speedway in Virginia.
The holidays will soon be upon us. In less than a month, December 2nd to be exact, ol’ Cooter will be celebrating with a good old-fashioned jamboree! The fun starts at 7pm at the
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