- Date Of Death: August 9, 2015
- State: Texas
Ethel Jo Grissom Harris, age 90, of Temple, Texas passed away on August 9, 2015 at Cornerstone Gardens in Temple, Texas after a long battle with heart disease. Jo is survived by her daughters Deborah Jane Starkey and her husband Ben of Colorado Springs, CO, and their sons Wayne Starkey, Luis Starkey, and Paul Starkey and his wife Lelei, and their son Tulu Bennett Starkey; daughter Lee Ann Foulger and her husband Paul of Spring, TX and their daughters Elizabeth Bittner and Rachel Atkins and her husband TJ; and daughter Kimberley Jo Clawson and her husband Jamie of Gatesville, TX and their son David; as well as a host of loving relatives.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 60 years Happy Richard Harris, her sister Ida Lee Rogers of Gatesville and her parents Ruby Pearl Grissom and James Ernest Grissom. Jo was born on a farm near The Grove, TX, the second of two children born to James Ernest Grissom and Ruby Pearl Odom Grissom. She graduated as valedictorian from Flat High School in 1942. She worked as a clerk at the A&P grocery store in Gatesville, TX from 1943-1946 before attending nursing school at Providence Hospital in Waco, TX where she graduated in 1949 as valedictorian. She worked as a registered nurse at Providence Hospital in Waco, private duty nursing in Waco and Gatesville, Coryell Memorial Hospital and Lowery Clinic in Gatesville.
Jo met her future husband Happy at the Lowery Clinic in Gatesville where she worked as a nurse and they were married in 1950. She was then the Gatesville school nurse from 1950 -1951. Jo and Happy moved to Austin in 1951 and Jo worked at Seton Hospital a short time until their three daughters Debbie, Lee Ann and Kim were born. She loved being a homemaker for her family. In 1964 the family then moved to the country on 27 acres near Leander, TX. After the kids left home, Happy and Jo moved from Leander to North Austin in 1983 where they lived for nine years before retiring to the rural Temple/Belton area in 1992, to Garden Estates Assisted Living in Temple in 2008 and then to Cornerstone Gardens in Temple in 2013. One of Jo’s passions was Girl Scouting.
She was a troop leader, a neighborhood chairman, a member of the Board of Directors, and District 5 Chairman in Austin. She was a wonderful influence on many girls’ and adults’ lives throughout the Scouting program. Another of Jo’s passions was her love of the Lord and the Methodist Church. In the 1950s she attended First United Methodist Church in downtown Austin, then later she joined the United Methodist Women at the First United Methodist Church in Leander in 1964, and after moving to the Temple/Belton area in 1992, she joined the UMW at First United Methodist Church in Belton where she and Happy made their church home.
Jo was an excellent photographer and loved taking photos on her travels around the U.S. and Canada with Happy after his retirement, as well as many photos of her children and grandchildren that will be treasured always. Jo was a loving wife, mother, aunt, sister, grandmother, great grandmother, and friend who will be missed by all those whose lives she touched.
