Jo Anne Mooney

Jo Anne Mooney (née Misner), beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, editor, artist, and lifelong lover of the written word, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, October 2^nd, 2025 at the age of 97.

Born on January 5^th, 1928, in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, to George and Winifred Misner, Jo grew up along with Jean, Patricia, and Nancy as the second youngest of four spirited sisters. She was a standout student at Wilmerding High School and went on to major in English at the University of Michigan, where she was an associate editor at The Michigan Daily.

In her senior year, Jo was selected for a prestigious guest editor internship at Mademoiselle in New York City, a position that was highly sought after by college women in the 1950s interested in a career in writing or publishing. This recognition reflected her sharp intellect, editorial promise, and keen sense of style with words.

Soon afterward, she chose marriage over Manhattan, moving to Chicago to wed her one great love, Francis James Mooney. Together they raised four children in the suburban landscapes of Chicago’s North Shore, a setting of material comfort that could also feel constraining to a woman of Jo’s independent and questioning spirit. She met those challenges with resilience, wit, and commitment to her family.

Though she devoted herself to raising her children, Jo was, in many ways, a woman ahead of her time. Brilliant, outspoken, and independent by nature, she often found herself stifled by the cultural expectations of mid-Twentieth century domestic life. As her children matured, she reclaimed her own path: building a long editing career at three different publishers — Nathan Rubel, McDougall Littell, and Scott Foresman — while also earning a master’s degree in American history with a thesis on the mission system of Brother Junípero Serra.

After her husband’s death in 1992, Jo engaged in life on her own with strength, grace and almost fierce self-reliance. Living in a lakefront apartment in downtown Chicago, she built a circle of great friends with whom she enjoyed the symphony, theatre, opera, film, and always, art classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. Every summer, she spent time in Door County, Wisconsin, further pursuing her painting as well as swimming at Newport Beach. She moved to Durham, NC in 2016 to be closer to family. A voracious reader and a superb editor, she continued working well into her 90s, lending her discerning eye to projects both personal and professional. She compiled “Kate’s Cook Book” for her granddaughters, worked on her retirement community’s newsletter ”The Forester,” and even copy edited several of her son Richard’s scientific manuscripts.

Jo was a particularly attentive grandmother. She delighted in the lives of her four grandchildren — Kate, Margrith, Eva, and Justin — and invested in them her time, her book recommendations, and her unwavering affection.

Jo will be remembered for her intelligence, her uncompromising honesty, her artistry, and her deep devotion to family.

She is survived by her four children Jane, Ellen, Richard (Julie), and Thomas (Elene), four grandchildren, great grandson Auden, two nieces and several great nieces and nephews. She now joins her husband, Frank, and her sisters and parents in rest.

Her family is deeply grateful for the long, full life she lived and the legacy of art, words, conviction, and love she leaves behind.

A memorial service will be held at the Forest at Duke in Durham, NC, followed by a graveside ceremony in Cedarburg, WI. Dates and times of these services will be forthcoming on this site. In memory of Jo's lifelong passion for reading, donations to Book Harvest are welcome (https://bookharvest.givevirtuous.org/donate/joy).