Jo Stubbs

Jo Anne Davis Stubbs, age 93, died peacefully on September 13,2024, at the home of her daughter and son-in-law, Mary and Don Rigger, surrounded by her children who had been warmed by her ever-flowing love, as Louis Armstrong's "It's a Wonderful World" played in the background.

Jo Anne Stubbs led a life of selfless kindness, love, and outreach for others that knew no boundaries. She loved and cared unconditionally for every person whose life she crossed and never forgot their names or life stories. She was passionate about giving, cooking, bringing justice - and speaking truth to power, or just saying embarrassingly direct things to folks to make them laugh or sometimes squirm. With tireless energy, she brought family together for memory-making Sunday feasts where upwards of thirty family members, friends, and anyone else who wanted to come were served awesome fried chicken, at least two other meats, six sides, and several homemade desserts, including her famous peach ice cream. No matter what the achievement - a first step taken, a goal scored, a play performed, a race run, a degree awarded, a job taken, or a birthday - she celebrated it with a homemade cake and joyful singing. For grandchildren, no wish went unanswered. She created a paradise retreat for them full of games, puzzles, movies, sweets, and ski bobbing. She was known to stay up all night sewing costumes for kids on Halloween or gowns for a ball. Every friend of hers who became ill could count on Jo Anne's boiled custard to cure what ailed them.

For a decade, the Stubbs family joined their cousins the Stewarts for an annual family vacation at New Smyrna Beach in Florida. No small part of that great memory was the annual tie dye t-shirt project she organized and, of course, the daily breakfasts that Jo Anne and Wytch served to everyone. It was the biggest smorgasbord of food you could imagine, with anything from smoothies, omelets, bacon, cinnamon toast, peaches and cream, grits, blueberry pancakes, to any special order you wanted.

Most of all, though, she loved her late husband Wytch Stubbs. Jo Anne and Wytch were married for over 67 years. Their passion for one another lit any room they entered. They modeled marriage in a way that, if beyond the reach of most, at least showed what was possible and how amazing it could be. If there was a silver lining of Jo Anne's progressively disabling condition these last years, it was that one of her frequent delusions after Wytch passed was to see and talk with her beloved as though he were there many a night.

Jo Anne Davis Stubbs was born on January 21, 1931, in Orlando, Florida, to her beloved parents, Joe and Victoria Davis. In 1952, she married Olan Wytch Stubbs, who died on January 29, 2020. Jo Anne and Wytch had six children, five of whom survive: her two sons, Joe (Annabelle) Stubbs and Tom (Lyn) Stubbs; and her three daughters, Cindy (Ben) Goss, Mary (Don) Rigger, and Kate (Erik) Lesser. Wytch and Jo Anne's daughter, Susan Anne Stubbs, was born and died on July 9, 1955. Jo Anne is also survived by fourteen grandchildren: Katherine Stubbs (Warren) Stewart, Laura Stubbs (Clifton) Fay, Emily Stubbs, Justin (Lauren) Stubbs, Connor (soon - Corie) Stubbs, Sarah Stubbs, Cullen (Julia) Goss, Samantha Goss, Madison Rigger Hatfield, Wytch (Alli) Rigger, Benjamin Rigger, Hannah Lesser, Isaac Lesser, and Penelope Lesser, and two step-grandchildren, Eirini Longini (Sebastian) and Luca Longini. She has also been blessed with eight great-grandchildren: Mary Thwaite, Warren and Sanders Stewart; Annabelle, Lucile and Clifton Fay; and Davis and Camden Rigger.

Jo Anne is also survived by her sister, Betty Mary Stewart of Alpharetta, and her four children, nephews Scott (Mary Anne) Stewart, Davis (Kay) Stewart, and James (Missy) Stewart, and her niece, Victoria Stewart. (Betty Marie's husband, Jim Stewart, the father to these children, passed away in 2000). Jo Anne's sister-in-law, Dot Hollingsworth of Chapel Hill, NC, passed away earlier this year, but Dot's daughter, Melissa (Mike) Hollingsworth McCoy of Asheville, NC, survives her. (Dot's husband, Hank Hollingsworth, the father of their three children, died in 1987). Two of Dot and Hank's daughters, Amanda and Jane, also previously passed away, with Jane leaving her husband, Tom Miller, and their three children, William (Karim), Jack (Brett) and Kate (Joel with baby Jane), as survivors.

At Jo Anne's request, there will be a service at Bethel Brick United Methodist Church in Girard, Screven County, Georgia, on Saturday, September 21, 2024, at 12 noon where her ashes will be buried next to Wytch's ashes and the grave of their daughter, Susan.

In lieu of flowers, any donations in her memory may be directed to a charity of the donor's choosing