Josephine Ruth Warfle

Born June 26, 1924, to Michael and Anna Mitoska in Cuba, New York, and later raised in Lansing, Michigan, a young Josephine enjoyed the love of a doting Slovak mother and father, fierce protection of older brothers, Joseph and George, and the kind guidance of her older half-sister, Helen.

She followed her childhood passion for ballet, completing the arduous Cecchetti Method. On the cusp of dancing her way to the New York Ballet, however, things turned out differently for Josephine. World War II and marriage to Elywn “Stub” Warfle, a Michigan farm boy-turned-bombardier, changed everything.

Jo, herself, served during the war as our family’s very own “Rosie-the-Riveter,” at an Oldsmobile factory-turned-aerial bomb plant. She worked the line as a bomb fuse installer, with her husband dropping her bombs on Nazi Germany and Occupied France. He related once that his crew would excitedly call out, “There’s another one of Jo’s bombs that actually worked!” After the war, Jo struck again. During a delayed honeymoon with Stub at the Don Cesar Hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida, Jo managed to drive their new maroon 1947 Buick V-8 Convertible into Tampa Bay. They swam ashore and left the car in the surf. It was a good party. Afterwards, and to this day, there is a sign at the hotel prohibiting driving on the beach.

Eventually, with three children in tow, Jo lived the dream in the Air Force. She was stationed with Stub at bomber bases all over the country and performed diplomatic duty in Tokyo. As an Air Force Wife, Jo shared her passion for ballet with youngsters under her tutelage from airbase to airbase. And she dutifully supported multiple Officers’ Wives Clubs to buoy morale and keep the airmen flying. Yet, she still found time to raise three kids and five grandchildren, helping them through their formative and parenting years.

Jo especially relished her time in Tokyo, where she enjoyed having a personal seamstress to recreate designer silk outfits, shopping for Noritake china, and hosting myriad embassy parties at her Downtown Tokyo apartment. Always the gracious guest, she once complimented a Japanese admiral on the (horrible) eel served at one such event. The next day a full case of eels arrived with compliments at the apartment! At another diplomatic reception, Jo managed to extinguish a 400-year-old Bonsai tree by innocently and discretely discarding her unappreciated ceremonial tea on its roots. Tokyo was never quite the same after Josephine had been there: shaming Japanese women for centuries-old subservience to their husbands, and nearly creating an international incident at a Soviet Embassy reception, addressing Russian functionaries unexpectedly in their native language (given her fluent Czech being close enough to Russian). They panicked a bit with this unknown American red-headed woman “spy” not being on their watchlist. As usual, this got Stub into unwarranted hot water with the security team at the US Embassy in Tokyo. There are endless vignettes of the swath Jo cut across the Air Force and Stub’s joint duty stations, with the above serving as examples in this limited account.

Josephine loved everything elegant: fancy cats, fine food, fine clothes, and fine china. Hosting family gatherings, being the center of attention and, always calling the shots was her standard for over eighty years. Jo made sure that Catholic holidays and family birthdays defined the calendar for visiting relatives, friends, and four generations of Warfles. Jo presided over these family rituals from Michigan to Washington, D.C., California, Louisiana, Texas, Nebraska, Japan, and several different locations in Virginia, where the senior Warfles ultimately retired.

To her grandchildren, Jo was the “Dean of Ruth College,” nominative of her middle name, Ruth, which was the family’s daycare operation in her home on Little Hunting Creek in Northern Virginia. Many holidays and summer vacations held lessons for the Warfle brood at Ruth College and they are still fondly heeded.

Her legacy is having been a much loved matriarch from the Greatest Generation; the glue that kept the family together and helped it thrive.

Born in Christ January 9, 2024, Josephine is predeceased by her beloved husband, Elwyn Warfle, and her son, Thomas Warfle. She is survived by her daughter, Nancey D’Orazio (Christian D’Orazio), son, Patrick Warfle (Jane Warfle), grandchildren Jennifer Smith (Jonathan Smith), John Warfle, Sarah Cast (James Cast), Marissa Perrone (Jake Perrone), Matthew Warfle, and great-grandchildren Jackson Smith, Riley Smith, Fiona Perrone, and Vincent Perrone.