Jo Ann McGinty Schaaf
Jo Ann McGinty Schaaf passed away in her home in Phoenix on April 25, 2023, a week after her 75th birthday. She was born in San Diego, California to Louise Weller McGinty and Selva McGinty.
She is survived by her son and daughter, Paul and Tora, her husband Wayne, step-son Shad (Cheryl), step-daughter Kelly (Chad), and 3 grandchildren (Brandon, Etta, and Avery) and numerous extended family members. A loving mother, sister, wife, grandmother, and a Registered Nurse, she spent her life taking care of others.
The second of six children, Jo grew up in San Diego, but spent many of her teenage years, along with her younger sister, Lynn, in the Middle East, where her father worked for Aramco. She told amusing stories about her years in the Manor House Boarding School in Lebanon and summers on the Aramco compound in Saudi Arabia, as well as doing a lot of traveling with her father and sister.
After completing school, she lived in Oaklahoma City, where she met her first husband, Don Zimmerman. They had two children, but divorced in 1972. As a single mother, she raised her two children while working full-time as a nurse.
Long after her kids were grown and on their own, she met Wayne Schaaf and married him in 2004. The two bought a piece of land in southwestern Colorado, and turned it into a working cattle ranch, while she continued to work full-time as a nurse until her retirement.
When she contracted pulmonary fibrosis and could no longer live in Colorado's high altitude, Jo and Wayne moved down to Phoenix, Arizona, where she resided until her death.
Her life will be honored at a memorial service at the Elks' Club in Cortez, Colorado on June 4th at 2:00pm.