Mary Jo Brown (née Walsh) passed away Thursday the 18th, at 76 years old, in the home she and her husband built, surrounded by her family. She now joins her father James Walsh and mother Mary Fox Walsh, as well as her two siblings Kathleen and Tony in heaven.

Mary Jo was a graduate of Bishop LeBlond High School, class of 1964. She went on to study at Missouri Western, soon finding a career wherein she made many great friendships, working at the State Hospital. However, she got her dream job when she retired in 1999 to spend time with her family.

Having traveled throughout Europe in her early adulthood, and seeing even more of the world in her retirement, Saint Joseph was always the place she called home. Its where she chose to raise her three children, and it is the place she made into a North Star for her family who, now spread across the state and to the corners of the country, always returned home to enjoy her biscuits and gravy, her storytelling, and her one-of-a-kind smile.

She is survived by her husband, Michael Brown (of the home), all three of her children; Bernadette (Gordon Prinster) Brown, Garrett Brown, and Shannon (Russel) Oleson, her two grandchildren, Callum Prinster, and Emma Oleson, as well as by the many adoring cousins, nieces, and nephews whose names populate a lifetime of stories told at her kitchen table.

In lieu of flowers, her family invites those who knew her to do as she would. Be kind and compassionate to a stranger. Mary Jo never missed an opportunity to compliment a passerby's smile, and no act of kindness (as simple as the holding of a door to accommodate her wheelchair) went unfollowed by her favorite compliment "I bet you make your mother proud."

A visitation will be held on Friday, August 26th, at Heaton-Bowman-Smith & Sidenfaden beginning at 5 pm, followed by a brief service at 6 pm by Father King of Saint Andrew's Parish.