Early Life
Jones was born Phylis Lee Isley in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Flora Mae (née Suber) and Phillip Ross Isley. An only child, she was raised Roman Catholic and attended Catholic school. Her parents toured the Midwest in a traveling tent show that they owned and operated. Jones attended Monte Cassino, a girls' school and junior college in Tulsa and then Northwestern University in Illinois, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, before transferring to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City in 1938. It was there that she met and fell in love with fellow acting student Robert Walker. The couple married on January 2, 1939.
Jones and Walker returned to Tulsa for a 13-week radio program, arranged by Jones' father, and then made their way to Hollywood. Jones landed two small roles, first in a 1939 John Wayne western titled New Frontier, followed by a serial entitled Dick Tracy's G-Men. In these two films, she was billed as 'Phyllis Isley' (Phyllis now spelled with two Ls). However, she failed a screen test for Paramount Pictures and decided to return to New York City.
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