JoAnn DeForest

JoAnn DeForest, 76, passed away in the early hours of March 12, 2013, at the Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital. She was born in Kentucky in 1936 to Charles and Daisy Mahoney. She married James A. “Jim” DeForest in Kingsville, Texas in 1970, just blocks from where they met on the campus of Texas A&I University. They would have celebrated their 43rd anniversary this spring.

Jo Ann graduated from W.B. Ray High School in Corpus Christi, Texas, received her bachelor’s degree from Texas A&I University and her master’s degree from the University of Corpus Christi. She worked in marketing in radio and television and at advertising agencies in South Texas and New Mexico. She later transferred her superb skills in marketing and communications into higher education, working for Texas A&I - Corpus Christi (now Texas A&M), University of Houston – Downtown, University of Houston – Victoria and the National College of District Attorneys.

JoAnn was active in political, cultural and professional organizations, and served on the boards of several nonprofit organizations. Although health issues forced her to take an early retirement from her professional career, she remained active as long as she could with Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church and her avid interest in genealogy. She was a proud and devoted mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She was thrilled to have passed on her drive to make this world a better place and to see that her two granddaughters are as outspoken as she was.

JoAnn was fortunate to get to travel with her husband for both work and pleasure. They lived in Nigeria and Switzerland in the early 1980’s, and traveled to England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany, France, Greece and Egypt. Once back in the United States, they continued to travel in this country and in Mexico. She believed that the best way to really experience someplace is by leaving the well-traveled areas to “see what’s down this road”.

JoAnn was preceded in death by brother, Charles Mahoney, Jr., and sister, Jeanette (Jeri) Mahoney.

JoAnn is survived by her loving husband, Jim; her daughter, Diana DeForest & husband Mark; her sister, Jeanne Hodde & husband Don; two granddaughters, Alicia Moellenkamp & husband Jessie, and Kelsey DeForest; and two great-grandchildren, Jamie and Jackson Moellenkamp.

Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday March 23 at Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church, 1900 Bering Drive, Houston, Texas, 77057 (713-782-8250). A reception will follow on-site in Westwood Hall. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations to the Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church.

Do not crate me for the coming

In a box within a box.

Do not finish me completely

Let me marry sea and rocks.

Make my resurrections annual

And death the briefest night...

Invest me in the heart of earth

To course her veins each light.

JoAnn DeForest ca. 1970