Jo-Ann Smythe, 59, of Reston, Virginia and Front Royal, Virginia passed away on Friday, February 22, 2019 at Blue Ridge Hospice Inpatient Care Center in Winchester, Virginia.
A memorial service will take place on Saturday, March 9, 2019 at 1 PM at Maddox Funeral Home, 105 West Main Street, Front Royal. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service.
Jo-Ann was born on October 30, 1959 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to the late Joseph T. Menghe and Carol Ann Wozniak Menghe. Jo-Ann loved to travel, explore various cuisines, spent her career in the travel industry and enjoyed working the tasting room of Delaplane Cellars.
Surviving along with her mother are her husband of 22 years, Greg Smythe; her beloved golden retriever, Jackson; sister, Kelly Ann Yelle (Steve); brother, David Menghe (Feixia); niece, Kayla Ann Yelle and nephew, Kai Franklin Menghe.
In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to the American Cancer Society at P.O. Box 22478, Oklahoma City, OK 73123 or online at www.cancer.org.
So saddened by this news that “my little sister”as I referred to her when we worked together at Delaplane Cellars has gone to her eternal home, many will miss her wonderful smile and warmth. May God be with the family as they deal with their loss.
We will all miss Jo-Ann in the travel industry. She was a dedicated, hard working, project and task manager who moved us all forward as an organization. Her smile and laugh brightened the room. Her ideas and diligence made us better.
March 9, 2019. A day that will be forever in my memory. The day of two memorial services for two beautiful women and friends who also happened to be in the Virginia wine industry: Jo-Ann Smythe, of Delaplane, and Jane Whitney, of Glen Manor (and previously Linden). I pray that the Lord has already is loving arms around them and welcomed them to his and their eternal home. On earth, I will miss them both…
Jo-Ann and I met the first day of 9th grade. There we were, the only 2 girls on a school bus filled with boys and heading to the boys school for band. We giggled the whole way and were fast friends from that first day forward. Our adventures and laughter carried us thru adventurous bike rides across town (no GPS, only a map), exploration of the tunnels underneath our all-girls high school that we were certain led us to the boys’ school and plenty of pranks in Lake Band.
It’s Jo-Ann’s laugh that I still hear today so many years later.