Obituary: Jo Huff

It was there that Jo graduated high school in 1953. Growing up, Jo enjoyed playing the piano, singing in the choir, drawing, and painting, making friends, playing golf, swimming, and going to dances. Jo attended the University of Missouri, where she majored in art and performed in musicals. She was president of Alpha Delta Pi sorority her senior year.

During summers, Jo worked in Kansas City, Missouri, at Hallmark. In 1957, fresh out of college, Jo began full-time work at Hallmark as an artist and designer of those iconic greeting cards. Jo met her future husband, Roger Owen Huff, at a wedding where they were paired as bridesmaid and groomsman. They married on Thanksgiving day, Nov. 26,1959, in Lebanon, Missouri.

Jo and Roger welcomed their only child, Robert Drew, in 1964. Within a year of Rob’s birth, the family moved to Kirkwood, Missouri, and two years later to Manchester. Unhappy with her job setting layouts for the Ellisville community newspaper, Jo became a teacher at Holy Infant School in Ballwin. The school needed a science teacher, so to prepare, she went back to school at Maryville University. Over 20 years, she taught a variety of middle school classes and was a beloved teacher who told her students, “I’m a learner, too.” She retired in 1987.

Jo and Roger moved from their long-time home in Chesterfield, Missouri, to Mt. Hood-Parkdale, Oregon, in 1997, to be closer to Rob. There, they remodeled an old farmhouse and cultivated stunning flowers and delicious fruit. Jo and Roger also traveled to Europe, Canada, and throughout the American west with family and friends.

Jo’s artistic abilities were endless: drawing, painting with oils and watercolors, pysanky egg decorating, photography, stained glass, wreath-making, and flower-arranging; she even dabbled in sculpture. She continued to play piano and sing. Her colorful clothes, scarves and sparkly baseball hats reflected her buoyant personality. She joined the Parkdale Garden Club, was president for a year, and loved growing and photographing flowers, winning myriad ribbons for both at the Hood River County Fair.

She also knew how to relax. Wherever Jo lived, she enjoyed sitting outside, having a cocktail and sharing stories with family and friends. Some of her classic stories involved driving. She liked to remind Roger that she taught him to drive, and she claimed to have raced the boys back in Lebanon as a teenager, something she just might have done. After all, at 40, this suburban mom and Catholic school teacher bought a new 1976 Pontiac Trans Am, one of the best “muscle cars” of that time. Occasionally, Jo was stopped for this or that reason and the officer would do a double-take when they saw who was behind the wheel!

Jo was spunky, smart and loved to laugh. She was a protective, devoted, generous and supportive daughter, mother, grandmother, mother-in-law, and wife.

Jo is survived by her husband, Roger; son Rob (Katie Corson); and granddaughter Evelyn and grandson Rowen. The family will celebrate her life privately on Sept. 23, what would have been her 90th birthday, toasting Jo’s life as she and Roger always toasted each other — “Here’s looking at you, kid.”

Jo had dementia the last few years of her life. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund.