Jo-Anne Martin Saxton, 86, passed peacefully from this world on Tuesday, April 16, 2013, at Owensboro Health Regional Hospital after a short illness. She was born on Sept. 18, 1926, to her late parents, Lena Coppage and Otto Carlston Martin of Hartford, Ky.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Robert M. Saxton and her three siblings, Gwendolyn “Tootsie” Ranney, Earl F. Martin, Sr., and Lula D. Cartwright.
Jo-Anne was of the Presbyterian faith and enjoyed scrapbooking. She graduated from Hartford High School in 1944 and went on to Ward Belmont Junior College for Women in Nashville, Tenn., where she graduated in 1946. In 1948, she graduated from Georgetown College in Kentucky with a major in Psychology and a minor in Sociology. Later she would receive her Master’s Degree from the University of Tennessee in Social Work.
During her career as a social worker, she touched many lives with her dedication and love of people. The job that she found the most rewarding was at St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., where starting in 1962, she was the Director of Social Services and the hospital’s Admitting Officer. She established the social service program and worked directly with patients and their families to help them adjust to the child’s illness.
When she met and married the love of her life in 1966, they moved to New York City where he was an editor-in-chief for McGraw Hill. Jo-Anne took a job at St. Luke’s Hospital as the Assistant Director of Social Service for Medicine, Surgery and Pediatrics.
Family was always very important to both Jo-Anne and Bob, so in 1972 they decided to buy a farm in Oldham County and moved back to Kentucky to be closer to their families. They were the real-life version of “Green Acres”! Jo-Anne became the Director of Homemaker/Home Health Service for the Visiting Nurse Association in Louisville.
Throughout her life, Jo-Anne, who was known as “Auntie Jo or Aunt Jo” to her numerous great- and great-great-nieces and nephews, was a very important part of our lives. She called all of us “her kids”. Memories of Christmases and family times on the farm will live on forever.
She is survived by nieces and nephews, Otto M. Ranney (Carolyn) of Owensboro, Charlotte Widenmuller of Owensboro, Frank Martin, Jr. (Mary Lee) of Hartford, Lena Jo “Lenee” Bowen (Bill) of Owensboro, Margaret “Maggie” Ireland of Owensboro, Marcia M. Boone (Chris) of Anchorage, Ky., William Rance Ranney (Peggy) of Owensboro, Gwen Barrett (Jack) of Owensboro and Dee-Anne Deemers of Chesepeake, Va., and numerous great and great-great nieces and nephews.
She will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved her. She was blessed to have some wonderful caregivers in recent years that she dearly loved, Kathy Aull, Millie Capp, Jeanete Shepard and Sandy Tooley.
Funeral services will be held Wednesday, April 24, at 2:30 p.m. at the Miller-Schapmire Funeral Home in Hartford with Rev. Jake Caldwell, Senior Minister at First Christian Church in Owensboro officiating. Visitation will be from 1 p.m. until the time of the service at the funeral home with burial in Oakwood Cemetery following the service.
