The Region - News from June 19, 1986

The impoverished Jones family of Long Beach, which rocketed to nationwide fame when chosen to form the final link in the coast-to-coast Hands Across America fund-raiser for the hungry and homeless, finally got a break. Faced with eviction from the Family Shelter for the Homeless in Long Beach (they have stayed 30 days--the maximum time allowed), the family has been temporarily “adopted” by computer programmer Darrel Barton of Torrance and some of his fellow workers, who offered to pick up the $900-a-month tab for a two-bedroom furnished apartment. “Everybody said, ‘Somebody will take care of these people,’ ” Barton said, “but nobody did--so we will.”