Having efficiently lined up all aspects of
her family's lives and futures, Jo Von DeBok decided it was time to
listen to the prayers of her family and went home to be with God where
we're sure she busied herself by boiling up a batch of her famous
Christmas peanut brittle for friends already there ahead of her. Jo was born, 4th of four children, to Glenn and Edythe (Wright) Kells of rural Russell, Iowa, August 28, 1931. As she told the story, "I was born on a cold day in August and I've been cold ever since!" She graduated from Russell High School in 1949 and attended the American Business Institute in Des Moines. Upon graduating there as Student of the Year, she was immediately offered a position with U.S. Congressman Karl LeCompte of Corydon, Iowa and it was off to glittering post-war Washington DC for this little Iowa farm girl.
A year later, upon hearing of her broken engagement to a dashing mid-shipman, Jo's childhood sweetheart, Chuck DeBok, made a hasty trip to D.C. He made sure she didn't get away a second time and immediately asked her to marry him. She said yes and Congressman LeCompte, who saw the writing on the wall, decided if Jo was leaving it was time for him to go, too. Jo continued to work for the Congressman from his home office in Corydon as his term finished out.
Chuck and Jo were married in the social event of the season at the Russell Baptist Church, September 28, 1952. In 1954 they welcomed their first child, Dee Ann. In 1955 a son, David, was born.
Jo and Chuck went on to build one of the most successful cattle and crop farming operations in Lucas County. Jo, with her two summers of piano lessons, became the organist of the Russell Methodist Church, a job she maintained for over 25 years. They would attend other churches, including the First United Methodist Church of Boone, but their membership always stayed in Russell.
In 1964, Jo went to work for the new Lucas County Hospital where she began work as a receptionist. She eventually parlayed that one-year business college degree into being named the hospital administrator. In her 24 year tenure at the helm, she made many improvements and instigated many ground-breaking ideas.
Jo and Chuck spent adventurous pre-retirement years by touring the world to such far-flung places as Alaska, Mexico, Hawaii, Canada, the Carribean, Bermuda, Germany, Ireland, Australia and Russia.
They eventually retired from the farm and the hospital and moved into an old family home in Russell. From there, they moved to Boone, Chariton and then back to Boone where Jo spent the final two years of her life as a resident of the Eastern Star Masonic home. There, in "The Star's" memory care unit, Hearthstone, her family's prayers started out as, "Please, God, make her comfortable" but morphed into, "Please God, make her comfortable and take her home." That happened early in the morning of December 16, 2019 as her beloved husband of 67 years gently held her hand.
Jo was preceded in death by her parents, brother Robert Kells and sister Margaret (Kells) Kylander. She is survived by her husband, Chuck DeBok, daughter Dee (DeBok) McKnight and husband Carl McKnight, Son David DeBok and wife Shari (Coulson) DeBok. She also leaves in legacy six grandchildren, Lane, Gayla, Brooke, Ryan, Emily and Charles, 16 great grandchildren (with one on the way), sister, Wanda (Kells) Calderon, and many nieces and nephews.
Jo will forever serve as an inspiration to her descendants as a woman ahead of her time, a natural leader and a loving mother and grandmother.
Services will be held at the Faith United Methodist Church, 115 Northwestern Street, Russell, Iowa 50036 on January 3 at 10 AM.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials may be made to the Russell Methodist Church or the Alzheimer's Association.
