Joanne (Jo) Anderson

Joanne (Jo) Anderson passed away peacefully at the age of 94 on November 8, 2022.  Jo was born May 7, 1928 to Danish immigrants Carl Gustave and Louise Margarethe (Hamaan) Andersen.  She was born and raised in St. Paul, MN along with two older sisters, Ellen (Andersen) Razwick and Helga (Andersen) Jorgensen, and one older brother, Carl “Cully” Andersen.  Even though her mother died when Jo was just 11, they had a very happy household full of laughter and music.  Jo graduated early from high school at the age of 16 and moved to Seattle to live with her sister Ellen to help care for her twins, David and Jerry, as Ellen’s husband was frequently at sea while in the Navy.  They attended Columbia Congregational Church where Jo sang in the choir.

Jo met the love of her life, Marvin “Buzz” Anderson when he was home from college one weekend and played his trumpet during a service at Columbia Congregational Church.  His parents introduced them and he asked her out to a church social.  Jo didn’t want to go so declined, but when her sister Ellen found out she turned down a date from that “cute boy”, she insisted Jo call him up and invite him over to help her babysit the twins, and the rest is history.  Buzz and Jo were married on June 25, 1947.

Buzz and Jo lived most of their married life in the Lakewood/Seward Park area of Seattle where they raised their four children.  The home she lovingly decorated and cared for was the hub for all family gatherings for holidays, birthdays, and epic Seafair parties.  Jo loved to sew, and made all the curtains in the house, and clothes for herself and her children. She also had a beautiful garden full of flowers and vegetables, which she loved to tend, and always had bouquets of fresh flowers from her garden in her home.

Jo worked as a secretary off and on over many years and could type like the wind and take shorthand.  She once told her boss she could “take shorthand but never said [she] could read it” when asked to repeat what she had just written - an example of the many jokes she liked to play on him.

Buzz and Jo enjoyed many years of traveling together to places such as Spain, Greece, Monaco, and later in life more domestically in their RV, traveling across the US and back five separate times collecting antiques along the way.  They also enjoyed spending time together and with family at their cabin on Camano Island.  

Always the life of the party, Jo will be remembered for her sense of humor, her love for animals and children, and her famous raspberry jelly that she made every year from the raspberries in her own garden, jars of which she would give away to everyone, including the construction workers remodeling her neighbor’s house. Visiting with Jo around her kitchen table was always an exercise in both humor and practical advice. She spent the last two years of her life at Sunrise of Mercer Island, and the family is much appreciative and grateful for the loving care Jo received there.  

Jo was preceded in death by her three siblings, one nephew, one niece, and her husband Buzz in 2012.  She is survived by sons Dean (Tracie) Anderson, Paul (Jill) Anderson, daughters Mary Ellen (Jim Swainson) Anderson and Jody (Ed) Zumwalt, 8 grandchildren, 3 great-granddaughters, 6 nephews and 4 nieces.

Her beautiful smile and sense of humor will be missed by all who knew her.