Josephine ""Jo"" Poppe

Josephine “Jo” Poppe was born on August 1, 1923 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her parents were Laura and Joseph Bielicki. She had four sisters; Lillie, Florence, Jessie and Mary, all who have preceded her in death. At the time she was born the average yearly income was $2,000, a new car cost $300, rent was $18 per month and gasoline was 12 cents a gallon. She has seen and experienced so much in her lifetime. Blocks of ice were delivered to her home for the “ice box”, she was a part of the “roaring 20s”, watched silent movies, shared a twin bed with her sister for much of her young life and was a life-long lover of Big Band era music. During her lifetime Charles Lindberg made the first transatlantic flight, the Star Spangled Banner was named our national anthem, the Lone Ranger radio broadcast began, Mickey Mouse was born, Disneyland opened and she managed to live through the hippie era. McDonalds was founded, which she couldn’t have been happier about since she loved their fish sandwiches. She witnessed unbelievable changes in technology, including the first color TVs, the birth of the internet (although she did not have much use for this), cell phones, the dawn of space exploration, man walking on the moon and the discovery of DNA. She saw the Berlin wall come down, the civil rights movement and all its positive changes. But she also saw tragedy; the bombing of Pearl Harbor, World War II, the great depression, more wars, the atomic bomb, political assassinations, the Hindenburg explosion, natural disasters and violence in society, but through it all maintained a positive outlook on life. She watched the news every morning and read the paper every day. She graduated high school and went to work for a bank. She married and during that marriage she lived in Missouri, Illinois, Minnesota, Utah, Tennessee, New Mexico and California. Most importantly to her, that marriage produced her three daughters, Barbara Miller, Diane Mack and Wendy Ashton. She worried about Barb when she was living in Japan and Guam, she nursed Diane back from a near fatal bout with a mumps misdiagnosis and massaged Wendy’s legs in the middle of the night when she had to start a new treatment for MS. She became a bookkeeper for a carpet manufacturer and was very proud that she could take care of herself. Her travel was to see family and her favorite trip was to Hawaii with Barb and told anyone she met that she had the best pineapple in her life when she was there. Diane always made her laugh. After Wendy relocated to Colorado she was persuaded to retire, pack up her belongings and head east where she resided with Wendy and Wendy’s husband Phil, granddaughter Heather and numerous dogs for well over twenty years until her passing on April 22, 2018. She was an excellent caregiver, homemaker and positive influence in Heather’s life. She is survived by her three daughters, their three spouses, William Miller, William Mack and Philip Ashton, along with her six grandchildren, Elizabeth Williams, Michael Miller, Steven Miller, Brennan Mack, Cory Mack and Heather Pelton and eight (soon to be nine) great-grandchildren, Lucas, Lydia, Cora, Christian, Brea, Miley, Mason and Blair. She surrounded herself with photographs of them all. She did not climb mountains, cure diseases or make millions of dollars. But to those who knew her, she did not need to do so. She was always ready to greet you with a smile, a kind word or an offer of a helping hand. Because of how she conducted herself, she instilled in others, a positive attitude, politeness, humility, a strong work ethic, calmness, the value of organization, being understanding and always on time, a sense of humor, gentleness and kindness. She was a great listener and storyteller. She raised a close-knit family and provided a loving home, hosting many family gatherings. Though thousands of miles apart she cherished that her family managed to find ways to get together. She loved that her children enjoyed being with her and with each other. She got along with all of her sons-in-law and was proud of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She talked about her daughters to anyone that would listen. She awaited the weekly phone calls from her out-of-state daughters, Barb and Diane, and loved to relay the contents of those conversations to others. She loved her family, her friends, chocolate, taking care of her home, sweeping the front sidewalk so she could talk with the neighbors, music boxes, getting her hair done, sitting on the swing with Molly, shopping at Kohls, the ribs from Rib City Grill, previously mentioned fish sandwiches from McDonalds, watching old westerns and spoiling her grand dogs. In her time with the Ashtons she was grandma to Spanky, BooBoo, Sammie, Yogi, Sasha and Molly. They all loved her as much as she did them. Baseball was her lifelong passion. She loved listening to Cardinals games on the radio with her dad. She loved playing the game. She was so good at it that someone wrote a poem called “Josie At The Bat” about her and she was invited to play on the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (like “League of Their Own”), but her mom said those girls were too “rough” and she wasn’t allowed to play. She saw the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, Stan Musial and so many others. She loved watching her granddaughter, Heather, follow in her footsteps and play softball. She played streetball well into her eighties and only stopped because the kids grew up and stopped playing. She eventually became a Rockies fan, although it was glaringly apparent they frustrated her, at times. She became known as “Grandma Jo” to those around her. Although her advancing years probably brought along with it a lot of aches and pains you didn’t hear her complaining, she was just happy to be alive. She was a religious woman, wore her cross every minute of every day. She had no doubt that she would be joining her Lord when she departed this earth and anxiously awaited seeing her parents, sisters and friends again. We have all lost a pillar in our lives, but Heaven has gained an incredible angel and we are sure that she has been put in charge of taking care of all the dogs in Heaven. For those who have had the good fortune to have her in their lives, she will never be forgotten and she will be sorely missed. She was a beloved sister, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend. Some would say that we were lucky to have her for over ninety-four years, but those who knew her would argue that she was still too young to have left us.