Marcia Jo Anne Perry

MARCIA JO ANNE PERRY
(she goes by Jo Anne)

Marcia Jo Anne (Sheets) Perry was born on July 9, 1935, the only child of Richard and Marcia Sheets. She was raised in southern California and graduated from Inglewood High School. After high school, Jo Anne moved to Germany and married William Palmer who served in the U.S. Army in Stuttgart. To this union, three children were born: Rick, Michael, and Chris. The family settled in northern California until the early 1960’s when the marriage ended and Jo Anne moved back to southern California to be near her parents. In 1969, the family moved to Missouri, where Jo Anne spent many happy summers as a child visiting her grandparents. Jo Anne helped her father run an Ozarks resort in Branson, MO where she became reacquainted with Donald Perry, a young man she had met while visiting her grandparents in Platte City years before. Jo Anne and Donald were united in marriage at the Second Creek Church in Linkville (Smithville) on May 16, 1970. Donald and Jo Anne eventually settled in Platte City where they resided until Donald’s passing in 2003. Jo Anne was a woman dedicated to her family and her home. She spent countless hours organizing generations of family photos and scrapbooks. She had a small home, but took great pride in being organized enough to find nearly anything you needed at a moment’s notice. Those who knew her well can attest to her being an “organized pack rat”. Whether it was a photo of Great Aunt Effie, a 3/8” socket, or a halter for a horse, Jo Anne had it and knew where it was. If not, it was because “Donald Moved It”. Jo Anne was a lover of all animals and was a great dog trainer. She began handling bull dogs in the show ring in her early teens, and helped to bring countless puppies of all breeds into the world throughout the years. When asked about her knack of training dogs, she would say “Dogs are just like children….you have to be patient like they are toddlers”. Jo Anne was a woman of many talents, as comfortable in the kitchen as she was in the barn lot. She would serve delectable holiday meals on her grandmother’s linens and china, and then serve a literal buffet of her Christmas cookies. Some families make a special cookie at Christmas as a nice tradition. Jo Anne made dozens of varieties of her families favorite cookies. If Rick liked butter cookies, she would make dozens for him. But, if Mike liked peanut butter blossoms, she would make dozens for him. With an ever-growing roster of sons and daughters-in-law, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Jo Anne was making literally hundreds of cookies every Christmas…without fail. And, of course, her daughter, Chris was right there with her, baking the same recipes that Jo Anne had baked with her mother. She not only spent her life remembering the past, but remembering to teach the lessons and the stories of the past to the future….her kids. And so, today, Jo Anne’s kids honor her as a wife, a mother and a grandmother…but most of all as a friend. A quote that seems to fit her says, “Let me live in my house by the side of the road and be a friend to man.”