Jo Ann Stielow

Jo Ann was born on March 21, 1943, to LaVona Sprague and William Mahan in Pocatello, Idaho; she passed away on July 14, 2022, at the CHI Mercy Hospital of Corning at the age of 79.

Jo Ann grew up in Yankton, South Dakota, where she attended the nursing program at Sacred Heart School of Nursing, which later became part of Mount Marty University. She graduated and lived in Yankton where she met her future husband Percy whom she married in 1963. Percy and Jo Ann started their careers and family in Coleridge, Nebraska; in 1970 they made their way to Corning, Iowa, which became their home for more than 50 years.

Jo Ann worked several years as an RN at the local Corning hospital, then known as Rosary Hospital. In 1977 she took a position as a clinical instructor in the nursing program at Southwestern Community College where she spent the next 28 years instilling the art of nursing in others. Like Percy, she was known as a tough instructor. She held high standards and understood the importance of doing so for the nursing profession. She excelled at patient assessments and the art of observing what you see. There were few places she could go in Iowa without hearing the comment “you were one of my instructors at SWCC,” which is a testament to the number of lives she touched.

She loved raising her family and had a special touch for allowing her children to be independent while maintaining solid boundaries. She was a strong woman of faith and spent decades involved in St. Patrick’s Catholic Church. Jo Ann was a member of the Altar Society and a co-lead
of the funeral committee for many years, providing a loving service to others through a difficult time. She also enjoyed gardening and planting flowers which added great beauty to their home’s backyard sanctuary.

One of Jo Ann’s greatest gifts was understanding how to do small things with great love. She knew how to create a warm environment for a special event or holiday and how to pass on a kind word or words you just needed to hear at that moment. She almost always focused on
others and knew how to lift them up. Below is poem she wrote to her brother to recognize his graduation; it speaks volumes to how she lived her life.

My Hands are a Gift,
My talent is rare.
With your aching body,
My skills I will share.

Preceding Jo Ann is husband Percy, son Mike, infant son Doug and infant daughter Angela, nephew Ron Slack, brother-in-law Joe Slack and parents LaVona and Bill Mahan.

Left to cherish Jo Ann’s memory are daughter Kim Moore, husband Paul Moore, grandson Nick and wife Lauren with new great-granddaughter Arya Moore of Colorado, her sisters and brother Karolyn Van Osdel, Jim Mahan and Kathleen Marris, her brother-in law Larry Van Osdel, sister-in-law Arlene Slack, along with several nieces and nephews and the many students and friends she touched over her career.