Josephine Anne Hugh

Josephine Anne Hugh of Bellevue passed away peacefully in her sleep on Sunday, March 14, 2010, just a few days before her 85th birthday.“Jo” was born March 16, 1925, in West Union, Iowa, to Frank and Alta Wiley. Alta, who had been a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse, lived to be 108. Frank was a fiery Irishman.Jo spent her childhood years on the second-generation Wiley farm. Frank bought her and her sister, Mayta, a Shetland pony, Bessie, which they hitched to a cart and drove as often as they could to her grandparents’ farm, a few miles away. Jo treasured and maintained this proximity to loved ones throughout her life. Among Jo’s many accomplishments was her graduation as valedictorian from West Union High School in 1943. The Latin she mastered there would later garner an astonishingly high score on the Miller Analogies Test. Family historians discovered she was related to Richard Warren and Sir Francis Cook, who arrived in America on the Mayflower. She attended Iowa State Teachers College (now the University of Northern Iowa), graduating in 1947. Her college years during World War II were interrupted by a one-year provisional teaching assignment. When she returned to college, she met her future husband, Clair, with whom she would spend more than 54 years. They met while working together on the college newspaper. A long-time teacher in the Bellevue School District, Jo, earned her Master’s in Education from the University of Washington in 1974, while raising six children: Carolyn, Steven, Mark, Jane and Barb of the Seattle area; and Robert, of Lusby, MD. She is survived by her sister Mayta, of Auburn; her sister-in-law Liz Wiley, of Strawberry Point, IA; her sister-in-law Trudy Hugh, of Green Valley, AZ; and her brother Alden and sister-in-law Donna, of Lansing, IA. She treasured all of her many sons and daughters-in-law: Bill, Helen, Erika, Stephen and Fred, and every one of her grandchildren: Scott, David, Jeff, John, Tyler, Maddy, Aaron, Max, Lianne, Kenneth, Mike, Thomas, Nathan, Kevin, Angela and Christina.Jo had been active as a VIBES volunteer and in Overlake Service League; also with SeniorNet and the Bereavement group at St. Louise Parish. A mass for Josephine will be held at St. Louise Catholic Church in Bellevue on Monday, March 22, at 10:30 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to HopeLink, 14812 Main St, Bellevue, Washington, 98007.

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