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MARY JO LINDQUIST
February 23, 1939 – June 30, 2024
Bio
Newspaper Article(s)
LINDQUIST
Mary Josephine Lindquist, better known to her friends as Jo or
Mary Jo, peacefully left her earthly home, to join her heavenly father, in the quiet
early morning hours of June 30th, 2024.
Born Mary Josephine Rasor on February 23rd, 1939, to William Willford II and Mary
Louise Rasor in San Antonio, Texas. Mary Jo was the first of two children born to
Bill and Mary.
Mary Jo spent the first part of her youth growing up with her parents and brother
Bill surrounded by family in both San Antonio and Catarina, Texas. Her father was a
Gulf Oil Salesman and longtime mechanic and spent years following the migrant farmers and crops. The Rasor family settled in Falfurrias, Texas in 1949. When she arrived
Mary Jo would not only start the fourth grade but also meet her lifelong friends
(more like sisters) Norma, Sara, and Billye while attending Lasater Elementary school.
The girls spent countless days together that Mary Jo held very dear. Once in high
school most drove with or without a license, and some didn’t get a license until
they left home to go to college, the dusty hot Texas Summers were spent hanging out
at the Drive Inn or going to a movie, and despite their strict parents the girls
were allowed to date in the summers. This group, known lovingly as “The Four” would
attend school together at Falfurrias high until the start of their junior year when
Mary Jo would go on to attend and later graduate from Our Lady of The Lake, in San
Antonio, Texas as a fourth-generation attendee on May 27, 1957.
Upon graduation from high school, The Four were together again for the summer and
all made plans to attend college – Mary Jo and Norma would be roommates at Texas
A&I (now known as Texas A&M Kingsville), living in Lewis Hall. While Sara and Billye
attended other institutions - this, however, was short lived and by the following
fall The Four were reunited all attending Texas A&I!
The Four shared countless memories together from playground games to movie dates,
dances, graduations, and weddings but the most memorable of these times being while
attending Texas A&I. For Mary Jo especially on the first Friday of the 1957 Fall
Semester; as Mary Jo wrote, the weekend was here and freshmen were assigned to dorms, and then there was a Dateless Dance. Bob was now a sophomore and he had been there
long enough to know his way around campus. He joined the rest of the football team
and sat on the stage to observe all the new incoming freshmen girls who came to
their first Dateless Dance. That night he danced with Jo’s good friend and roommate,
Norma, inquiring if she knew someone he had known since elementary school, Mary Jo
Rasor.
Mary Jo and Bobby were no strangers to one another, having first met when Mary Jo was a new first grader in Carrizo Springs Elementary sitting in front of a Second grade
Bobby, who spent more occasions dipping her pigtails into ink than she liked to
admit. Their fathers were both working as mechanics and were introduced to one
another at the same jobsite naturally leading their mothers to become acquainted
sharing coffee, gossip, and in time news of the war as their children played
together.
After a 2-year courtship Mary Jo wed Bobby Gene Lindquist on August 8th of 1959
and, in her words, began a whirlwind of a life together until Bob’s passing on June
18, 2004. On November 19, 1960, Mary Jo welcomed her first child Julie Lynn, born
while Bobby and Jo were living in Kingsville. In September of 1961, the family was
assigned to Holloman Air Force Base, in White Sands, New Mexico. There Bobby served
as a member of a newly combined organization known as STRICOM and Mary Jo would
become close with many of the other wives of officers involved in STRICOM.
The Family was deployed to Stuttgart, Germany in 1962. They welcomed their second
child son James Owen, better known as Jim, on January 25, 1963. Their time in
Germany was full of fond memories of visits from family, the excitement of raising
children, especially in a foreign country, and trips spent in other European
destinations.
Upon their return from Germany, during the Christmas season of 1965, Jo worked to
settle the family in in Alice, Texas, and that summer, while Bob went to take finals, Jo drove herself to Alice Hospital to deliver her third child Miss Jill Rene on July
11, 1966. However, there was a shortage of jobs which led Bob to take a job coaching
at Harlingen High and Mary Jo would take a job teaching at a school that was home to
many migrant farm workers’ children in Harlingen. The family stayed 6 years in
Harlingen, and while it was a very comfortable situation in Harlingen, Mary Jo and
Bob desired more for their children and sought to improve their situation – for her
part Mary Jo, in the fall of 1969 completed her student teacher’s degree and in May
1970 she graduated from Pan American College in Edinburg, Texas with a Bachelor of
Science in Elementary Education.
In the summer of 1972, the family moved to the Strawberry Capitol of Texas, Poteet.
In Poteet Mary Jo and Bob bought their first home and settled into the community
where they worked to build a football team, new field house, new field, athletic
program, and a life within their community for their growing family.
The summer of 1977 saw the family moved from Poteet to start a new chapter in
Refugio, Texas. Prior to their arrival Mary Jo was promised a temporary job but it
was soon learned that this was no longer available. Thanks to the wonderful members
of the local Episcopal church Mary Jo would soon be put to work supervising a crew
of “mis-guided” youth who spent their days clearing brush and debris – for this role
Mary Jo quickly earned her license to drive a dump truck to haul the clearings picked up by the youth, off to the dump. Julie would go on to graduate while the family
lived in Refugio.
The summer of 1979 the family made its final move to Taylor – Bob would take a
coaching job as a Taylor Duck and Mary Jo would take a teaching position at Twelfth
Street Elementary and later finish her teaching career in 2000 at TH Johnson
Elementary. Mary Jo left a lasting impression on every one of her students, caring
for each as if it were her own child or grandchild. It was rare she was introduced as anything other than “Nana” as she often filled that role for so many.
Mary Jo was a proud member of St. James Episcopal church where she served for a
number of years as a member of the Choir, on the Bishops Committee, serving the
Daughters of the King, as a proud Glory Bound Singer, and she served as an alter
guild. In addition, Mary Jo was a member of the Taylor Garden Club for many years as
well as the Taylor Women’s Study Club. She loved to volunteer and spent time working
at the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift shop as well as serving as a Taylor ISD Ambassador
for years. Spring was one of her favorite times of year and she cherished her time
spent tending to her beautiful trees, plants, and flowers - each spring she would
carefully prune each plant and pull each weed while lovingly encouraging each to
grow just the way she encouraged each person she encountered. She had a wealth of
plant knowledge and loved to share beautiful plants as well as her knowledge of
plants and trees with loved ones. Mary Jo’s kind spirit, bright smile, and love
for her everyone around her proceeded her. She very dearly loved Jesus and her
church, her family, her many many friends, a lifelong menagerie of animals turned
pets, shopping, margaritas, mariachis, and to travel. Her zest for life and her
desire to learn and explore led her to many extraordinary places throughout her
life and she continued those travels as often as possible in her later life.
She was, a wonderful and very welcomed daughter, a bossy and loving older sister,
a caring friend to many, a loving wife to Bob, a doting mother to Julie, Jim, and
Jill, an amazing Nana to more than just her own share of grandchildren, a favorite
teacher, a lifelong cheerleader, an outstanding example of a Christian woman, an
always empathetic shoulder to cry on, a talented seamstress regularly tasked to
finish projects, but also a creative genius to knit them together, an plant lover
with a green thumb and an even bigger heart, she will be dearly missed by her
family and friends.
Mary Jo was raucously greeted in heaven by a host of loved ones including her
husband and the love of her life Bobby Gene Lindquist; her parents, William Wilford
II and Mary Louise Rasor; dear friends, Sara, Norma, and Billye, as well as many
other wonderful friends and loved ones.
She is survived by her brother, William Willford Rasor III, and his wife Jane, of
Florida; daughter, Julie Downs and husband Tom, of Taylor; son, Jim Lindquist and
Wife Rebecca, of Leander; daughter, Jill Odle and husband Ken of Houston; grandson,
David Downs and wife Katy, their sons Henry and Whit of Taylor; granddaughter, Emily
Smith and husband Jordan of Taylor; granddaughter, Jessica O’Brien and husband Creig, their sons, Braeden and Tyson of Taylor; granddaughter, Jennifer Lindquist and fiancé Charlie Woods of Round Rock; granddaughter, Jesse Abernathy and wife Melissa, and their children Dean and Taylor; granddaughter, Kristen Abernathy of Austin;
granddaughter, Synde Peters and husband Emil, and their daughters Skylar and Emma
of Jarrell; nephew, Darrell Rasor his wife Adrianna and their children and
grandchildren; neice, Holly Rasor and countless friends.
Final arrangements are pending and will be available through the providence website
once finalized. Following the service the family will travel to San Antonio where
Mary Jo and Bobby Gene Lindquist will be interned together at their final resting
place, at Coker Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas.
In lieu of flowers the family asks Mary Jo’s friends and loved ones to please make a
donation in her honor to the St. James Episcopal Church of Taylor Discretionary fund,
the Taylor Educational Enrichment Foundation at https://www.tayloreducationfoundation.com/ or to the Texas A&M University Kingsville Foundation at https://www.javelinagiving.org/give-online.
PROVIDENCE FUNERAL HOME
807 Carlos Parker Blvd., NW
Taylor, TX 76574
(512) 352-5909
www.taylorprovidencefuneralhome.com
Published on the Providence Funeral Home website on July 2024.
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