Jo Ann Nelson, of Kansas City, Kansas, passed away January 2, 2019 at the age of seventy-nine. 

     JoAnn was born June 25, 1939 in Leavenworth Kansas.  She graduated from Immaculata High

School and received her B.A. from St. Mary’s College in Leavenworth and her M.A. from K. U.

     Following graduation, she held a series of jobs, some of which she left because of her basic kindness and sympathy for others.  After a job with the army in Fort Leavenworth, she worked for the Social Security Administration evaluating applicants’ eligibility for a disability designation.  Because she was so thorough considering applications, she often failed to make her quotas.  She worked in Germany for a year with special services, designing activities for the troops.  She taught English to sixth and seventh graders and later taught English and Latin classes at Ward High School in Kansas City, Kansas.   She found it hard to be a disciplinarian because the kids made her laugh a lot.  Beginning in 1972, she taught composition and literature classes at Kansas City Commuity College until her retirement in 1998. 

     Jo and her sister, Marjorie Armstrong, took many trips in the U.S.   She traveled to Ireland with her friend, Patty Schamus, and throughout England with fellow English teachers.  Jo and two others took the bus across the border into Wales and back, just to say they’d been to Wales.  She also made several spring-break trips to Mexico with KCKCC friends.

     Jo loved cats but loved dogs more, especially her Shelties, Molly and Sam, and her little Yorkie mix, Lucy.  She enjoyed nature.  She planted flowers in the spring, fed the birds, watched deer from her deck, had a river birch and roses planted in her front yard.

     Jo Ann spread her donations among many causes—the Sierra Club, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, organizations that focused on curing disease, assisting the poor, benefiting animals and children, preserving wildlife and wildlife habit, helping the environment.  Because of all these donations, at the end of every year Jo had many calendars to share with her friends.

     She also loved literature, was an avid reader, and shared books with friends.  One of her all-time favorites was Lonesome Dove and the TV series that resulted from it.  She was a big fan of different CSI series.  She also loved watching Sam Waterston.

     JoAnn passed away January 2, 2019.  She is survived by her sister and other family members,

her friends, and her dog, Lucy.  She was a kind, gentle person and a caring, supportive friend.  She had a great sense of humor and was a keen observer of detail.  Until her last year, she was a great talker, who could be very thorough in her stories, sometimes so thorough a colleague said, “JoAnn likes the Henry James version.”  She was a lifelong Democrat and spent her last days in bed watching her favorite news channel, MSNBC.

     She is greatly missed.  In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to St. Jude’s

Children’s Hospital. A memorial service is planned for Saturday, April 13, 2:00 pm at Mary Ann Flunder Lodge by the Lake, Kansas City Kansas Community College, 7250 State Avenue, Kansas City Kansas.