Josephine Rettie Morgan was born in 1935 in The Dalles, Oregon to Lois and James Rettie.

The second of three children, she grew up in a multi-generational household that included her grandmother. In 1953 she graduated secondary school and went on to Oberlin College. There she met the handsome and charming Christopher Morgan of Amherst, Massachusetts. Smitten by her brilliant red hair and charm, Chris served in Korea for two years but maintained their courtship throughout. They were married in 1955.

Jo finished her degree in education and taught second grade for two years before moving to Eugene, Oregon where Chris enrolled at the University of Oregon for architecture. There she had two daughters, Elizabeth in 1961 and Pamela in 1963. It was in Eugene that she joined the League of Women voters and began a lifetime of activism and political engagement.

In 1968 Chris started a job with a firm in Seattle so they moved the family to Bainbridge Island. She became active as a volunteer with the schools teaching art at the elementary level and later advising high school students who participated in off-campus studies. She continued her work with the League, serving on the Washington state board of directors, traveling the country training other league chapters and ultimately serving as vice president of the Washington State LWV.

Over the years she lobbied for the Equal Rights Amendment and invested her time into educating voters about pertinent current issues. An advocate of voters’ rights, she bucked the national League’s trend by opposing the move to electronic voting machines that did not provide a verifiable record to the voter – a concern that seems prescient today. In 2011, she was honored by the League for 50 years of service with a recognition event and award of Lifetime Membership.

In addition to being a devoted wife, mother and political wunderkind, Jo was entrepreneurial. In 1975 she opened The Cork Shop, a fine wine retail store on Winslow Way – one of the first of its kind in the Puget Sound region and in the early days of California’s now legendary fine wine production. The shop survived her departure in 1980, when she and Chris moved to Pullman, where Chris began a teaching career that would last another 18 years, taking them to Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana for three years before settling in Charlotte, North Carolina.

While Chris got his teaching career rolling, Jo went back to school to study art. A weaver since her Bainbridge days, Jo had been a member of the Seattle Weavers Guild and a board member of Bainbridge Arts & Crafts. She wrestled with her painting-biased MFA committee to allow her to present her art as worthy of an MFA. Ultimately, she won them over with the application of an unusual technique called Krokbradg and was awarded her MFA in 1990. In the meantime, she had opened a yarn and supplies store in Davidson, N.C., that allowed her to practice her weaving all day while serving other artists. Her work was shown in galleries throughout the Southeast, and she applied to and was accepted in the Piedmont Craftsmen – a prestigious arts organization promoting fine work in craftsmanship. She moved the Weavers Studio into Charlotte, joining forces with partner Jan Wescott. The studio quickly became a hub of knitting and weaving classes, practice and yarn and tools sales. She sold the business to her employees when Chris retired in 1998. They returned to the West Coast, deciding on Bellingham as their home.

In Bellingham she continued weaving, joined Allied Arts, helped run the Arts Commission, and helped lead the local LWV for a time. Jo loved to cook and entertain, and she and Chris enjoyed competing in their Bellingham bridge club.

Jo’s productive life and career was cut short in 2009 when she suffered a massive stroke. Four years of speech therapy did not enable her to recover her ability to write or talk, though she was still able to walk and continued to live independently and care for herself for years. Chris died unexpectedly in 2011, and she has been looked after and cared for ever since by her devoted son-in-law, Burrell Jull.

Jo was preceded in death by her parents James and Lois, her brothers Dwight and William Rettie, and her husband, Chris. She leaves her daughters Pamela (BHS 1981, husband Burrell) and Elizabeth (BHS 1979, husband Garth), and three amazing, hard working and talented grandchildren, Peter Burrell Jull of Bellingham and Katharine and Natalie Cowan of Olympia.

A party in her honor will be held at the Harris Avenue Café in Fairhaven from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 28. All are welcome to visit, enjoy each other’s company, view photos and weavings from Jo’s life and share your memories of her life. Light refreshments will be provided.

In lieu of flowers she would ask that donations be made to the League of Women Voters of Whatcom County or Mount Baker Planned Parenthood.

To share your memories of Jo, please visit molesfarewelltributes.com.