Alice Jones Emery was born Alice Ida Jones on June 24, 1868 in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, the daughter of William Morris Jones and Jane Robertson Jones. After she graduated from Allegheny High School, and received her B.L. at Oberlin College in 1891, she taught for one year at the Institute of Columbus, Ohio. Over the next two years she returned to Ebensburg to serve as an assistant in the Belles-Lettres department at Allegheny High School.

On August 2, 1894, she married Rufus Franklin Emery, who served several positions for the Westinghouse Airbrake Company (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), including appointments as the corporate secretary and treasurer. This union produced two children, Margaret (1896-1988) and Rufus Harding (1901-1958).

Following the death of her husband of apoplexy in 1918, Alice Jones Emery continued to give service to a number of organizations, including the American Association of University Women, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the YWCA, and the World Service Council. In some of them she held an elected office. She also invested enormous amounts of time as the Class Agent for the Oberlin College Class of 1891. In this capacity she organized class gatherings, wrote yearly news reports, corresponded with class members and kept the class financial records. One of her most significant contributions to the position was her compilation of the “class letters,” individual letters from members of the class. Her work led her to maintain ties with prominent members of the “Ninety-One” class, which included Seabury C. Mastick, Robert A. Millikan, J.B. McCord, Clark B. Firestone, and R. [Romanta] T. Miller, Jr. Other prominent members of this class include William L. Beard, Fred W. Garney, Guy S. Callendar, Mary B. Stafford, Carrie T. Memmott, and Juanita B. Bates.

While she retained her primary residence in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Alice Jones Emery devoted much time in her later years to travel. In particular, she spent a significant amount of time in Oberlin with her daughter, Margaret (Oberlin Kindergarten Training School, Class of 1918) and in Buenos Aires, Argentina with her son, Rufus Harding (Oberlin College Class of 1923).

On April 18, 1956, Alice Jones Emery died in Buenos Aires, Argentina while visiting her son, Rufus, after a brief illness.