No one preserved the history of this area better than Jo Hall as she wove the life's stories of area residents into her stories and obituaries. For nearly 60 years, she was a part of the lives of area residents from the pages of the Mobridge Tribune and through her church.
Jo died Saturday, March 5, at the Golden LivingCenter in Mobridge. She was 89.
She was born July 12, 1921, to Dee Dee and Charles (Kaiser) Sykes in Aberdeen. She graduated from Watertown High School in 1939 but had attended school in Mobridge from the fourth grade until her sophomore year in high school. She continued her education at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.
Jo initially had her eyes on Willis Hall, but it was his brother, Winston, who won her heart. She and Winston were married on Dec. 4, 1940 at the St. James Episcopal Church in Mobridge. They would remain life-long members of the church where Jo played the organ for Sunday services.
Daughter Wendy was born in September 1941. Soon after her birth, Winston left home to serve in the U.S. Air Force in World War II, spending four years overseas away from his family. While he was gone, Jo kept their Weather Service office running here in Mobridge. She also worked his mail route and learned to fly, while raising her daughter during the time he was gone.
She was honored as a Homefront Hero for her work during that time.
Their son, Willis, was born in November 1946, after Winston returned home from the war.
For years the Hall's ran the Weather Service office from their home, keeping Mobridge residents and Weather Service advised of what was happening in Mobridge.
Her family remembers their home as being a place of humor and adventure. Jo was infamous for doing the unexpected and her children have many fond memories of their mother "pulling one over" on neighbors and friends.
The Hall family always kept a basket of picnic supplies packed and ready to go.
"We just added food and when dad came home from work we headed to the river," said Wendy.
The family laughed when telling the story about returning home from a river trip one evening and finding a group of baby skunks on the road. Mother skunk was nowhere to be found and Jo decided she and the kids would round up the babies to "rescue them."
Needless to say, the baby skunks were not about to be rescued and the family needed tomato juice baths to be rid of the smell. The clothes they were wearing are buried someplace in the backyard of the family home.
Jo was a woman of many talents and her children referred to her as the "Original Martha Stewart." She loved to bake and sew, did crafts and was constantly experimenting with the latest thing she saw in books and magazines. Wendy said Jo could recreate a dress from a picture she saw in a magazine.
She threw herself into her projects, they said, always tackling a challenge with zeal.
Wendy recalled how birthday parties became full productions with a theme throughout. She remembered one of parties had a circus theme, with Jo dressing the pets and some of her garden vegetables as exotic animals for the affair.
She was a determined woman and when she set her mind to something, she was rarely deterred.
When Jo and Winston were talking of building a new home, Winston was a bit hesitant because of the cost, but Jo was determined. Imagine the surprise when Winston came home to find Jo had dug the foundation for the new home in the yard while he was at work.
"We certainly weren't the typical family," said Wendy. "Our lives were played out in her columns through the years. Dad certainly gave her a lot of column material."
Jo loved to play with words and her headlines reflected that. Her journalism skills were self-taught, but one could never tell by her writing.
In 1956, Jo went to work for Bob Bickett at the Mobridge Reminder. She was a part of the newspaper business from the age of hot lead through the birth of the computer and witnessed many changes in those years. She was involved in many aspects of the newspaper business, including advertising, editing, photography and writing.
It was at the Reminder that she began writing her "What Jo Knows" column. It was one of the most well read parts of the Tribune and Jo won countless awards for her column at the state and national levels.
She was never satisfied with a run-of-the-mill story, whether it was her Cook of the Week, feature stories or obituaries. She dug until she uncovered that part of a person's life that was unique and shared that with her readers.
She spent countless hours of her life talking with grieving families, searching for the story that paid tribute to the life that was lost. She cried many tears with family members as they remembered their loved ones.
For nearly 60 years, Jo was a part of the lives of those who lived here and those who left here. She was the anchor to this community for some who no longer live here, but corresponded with her on a regular basis.
She traveled extensively in the 1970s, serving as a foreign correspondent for the Tribune. She met foreign dignitaries in Thailand, France and Australia, sending pictures and stories of her adventures to the readers back home.
Determined to see an exchange student that had lived with the family in Mobridge, Jo snuck into Laos and was detained by authorities until a Laotian citizen came to vouch for her.
She is preceded in death by her parents and husband, Winston, and her brother, Monty.
She is survived by her sister, Nona Berns of Coshocton, Ohio;, her daughter, Wendy (Tom) Phillips of Craig, Mo.; and their children Evelyn (Doyle) Gill of Omaha, Neb.; Linda (Rod) Kennon) of Omaha, Neb.; and Molly (Kevin) Fogarty of Arlington, Va.; her son, Willis E. Hall (Dorotha) of Glendive, Mont.; and their children Winston of Havre, Mont., Andrew, Paul (Perrie), and Megan Hall, all of Glendive, Mont.; 22 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and four great-great grandchildren, and special friend, Yi Ju of Mobridge.
Funeral services for Jo will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 12, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Mobridge.
Burial will be in Greenwood Cemetery under the direction of Kesling Funeral Home of Mobridge.
Visitation will be Friday from 1 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. at the funeral home with a family prayer service at 7 p.m. at St. James Episcopal Church in Mobridge.
The family requests memorials to the A. H. Brown Library in Jo's name.