DEATH : ‘40s Top Model Candy Jones Dies

NEW YORK —  Candy Jones, a top cover girl of the 1940s and the highest-paid model of her time, died Thursday of cancer at 64.

She was the first model to earn $35 an hour--considered an astounding fee in the 1940s. She was also first to be featured on the covers of 11 national magazines at once, and she served as the model for a World War II postage stamp honoring women in the Navy and Air Corps.

Jones was born Jessica Arline Wilcox in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

The tall, blue-eyed blonde won the Miss Atlantic City beauty contest when she was 16. One prize was a trip to New York, where she was hired by the Conover modeling agency. She later married its founder, Harry Conover. The marriage ended in divorce.

Jones married radio WMCA talk show host Long John Nebel in 1972 and both served as co-hosts on a late-night show. She continued on the show after his death in 1978.

For 20 years she was owner-operator of Candy Jones Career Girls School. She also wrote magazine articles and books on modeling, beauty and fitness.