diff --git a/ion/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/dataformat/ion/IonParser.java b/ion/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/dataformat/ion/IonParser.java
index 972dd4c21..4ac4b78e1 100644
--- a/ion/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/dataformat/ion/IonParser.java
+++ b/ion/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/dataformat/ion/IonParser.java
@@ -251,6 +251,9 @@ public void close() throws IOException {
             }
             _closed = true;
         }
+        if (_reader != null) {
+            _reader.close();
+        }
     }
 
     /*