Mourning Jo
Roger Heineken, Emporia
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
JO MOUSE, 83, died Sunday of a quick onset of Lou Gehrig’s decease. Scott and Jo Mouse were always fun people that I first met in the early 1970s. Scott was connected to ESU in a volunteer capacity and quite the photographer in the 1970s. Jo was part of a group of friends who did the yard sale thing back then. I had many themed sales annually in those days...she and her friends always came by. We became friends.
On the occasion of the anniversary of my 10th year living in Emporia I gave a party. This was August of 1979 and a typical small, college-style party of that era. I had casually invited the generationally superior couple to attend. To my surprise they did come and spent an evening meeting college students and other younger people attending. Scott captured it all in camera. A week later I got a set of images.
Thirty-three years ago, Jo had a terrible accident with a riding mower that severed a hand and part of her foot while she was mowing their lake home family compound here in town. Scott was healing from a broken leg. This trauma didn’t really stop her from being an engaged citizen. She lived her life as though nothing had ever happened. I simply appreciated her spirit.
Of course life changed for Jo but deep down she remained the same great, social person I always liked a lot. After the 70s, I didn’t encounter Jo that often as I quit doing yard sales and her mobility curtailed some of the outings during her rehab.
In the lead-up to the Emporia sesquicentennial, I was surprised to learn that she was one, if not the only, living member of the 1957 centennial central planning committee. Learning this, I was not surprised to see her at the planning meetings for the 150th. She had a commitment to community throughout her life, not the fashionable “service” strong-arming of today. She was a pure spirit of a transplanted citizen joining so many others of her generation to make Emporia work and, hopefully, make it a better adopted hometown for her family of daughters. I admired her.
Her daughters have captured her spirit and I know Scott is proud of them. This July before the August 40th anniversary of my being an Emporian, I am mourning Jo.
Roger Heineken
Emporia