A tribute to Jo Shaffer | Letter to the editor

Published 1:30 am Friday, October 28, 2016

To the editor:

The first time I met Jo Shaffer was at Bainbridge Arts & Crafts. She was publicity chairman. That’s 30 years ago, but, at that first meeting, I recall her shoes, they were high heels. High heels! Bainbridge feet rarely hold high heels.

Well, those feet – high heels or not — have travelled thousands of miles through good works, hard work and projects no one else would take on, me for example. I have watched her stuff envelopes, volunteer for library fund raising, volunteering at so many other organizations, they are quite countless.

“What would we do without you, Jo?” I heard many, many times.

I don’t know when she gave up high heels but they must have slowed her down. She was a horsewoman, a swimmer (she swam every summer day at Wing Point), she wrote books and she entertained with joy.

Out last encounters occurred at the Bremerton Stamp Collectors meetings.

Being a semiserious collector, I knew I was with a professionals, when Butch Younkers, Jo and I would drive to Bremerton. They knew stamps.

Arriving in Bremerton, the small group would say, “Here comes the island crowd.” They may have added, “Raise the prices.” Maybe not.

We fit right in admiring collections and discussing stamp news and participating in auctions. Again, Jo was the one who know the business because her first husband was a stamp dealer.

The return trip was just as much fun, discussing children and, of course, Bainbridge politics.

Now I think back on those high heels. They have made lasting tracks over Bainbridge, tracks that will be long remembered and valued.

She even made good-work tracks in Bremerton.

“We don’t what we can do without you. Jo.”

SALLY ROBISON

Bainbridge Island