A Mickey Zezzo column: Remembering Jo...

MICKEY ZEZZO
Star Beacon

December 15, 2008 01:35 am

— Remember Joan (Way To Go, Jo) Williams, the Ashtabula woman who ignored a battle with Ovarian cancer to complete a 5K breast cancer fund raiser walk in Chicago last year?
The 72-year-old sister of this veteran sports writer who began his 60-year career with the old Conneaut News Herald, succumbed Wednesday while under hospice care at her condo on the lake on West Lake Road.
And if Williams had her way on a place to die, it would have been near the lake she loved — and where she spent days training her tired 5-foot frame climbing the long stairs to the beach to train for the Windy City walk.
It was a demanding Rocky Balboa effort, but with a tougher twist because at the time, she had been undergoing weekly 18-hour IV chemo treatmeants at the Cleveland Clinic, where she had her original surgery more than five years ago.
“Jo,” as she was affectionally known by family and friends, will always be remembered as a vibrant personality who loved life, loved music and was always a steadfast believer in her Catholic faith.
She was also an avid Cleveland Indians fan, never missed a game on TV and was overjoyed when the Indians’ front office, learning of her support and her condition, reserved four box seats for her at a game last Summer.
As a high schooler at Rice Avenue Union High School in Girard, Pa., she was captain of the Yellowjackets varsity cheerleaders. Williams later attended Grove City College in Grove City, Pa.
One of her closest cheerleader friends in Girard, Izzy (Wilson) Dunn, said “Jo was always upbeat and fun to be around. The life of the party. She was liked by everyone in school.
“For a long time over the years, our cheerleader team got together for a reunion — and happy-go-lucky Jo never changed.”
In Chicago, she got a big surprise when two of her three daughters, Stacy Schultheis of Virginia Beach, Va. and Robin Mechell of Cocoa Beach, Fla., showed up to do the run at Mom’s side. Also running with Jo was her close neice, Tami Marinello of Clinton Township, Mich., who inspired and convinced Williams to tackle the 5K challenge.
“She told me she was tiring at the halfway mark and I told her we only had a short distance to go,” Marinello said. “So she kept plodding onward.”
That was Jo’s cheerleading comeback, doing her courageous thing for a benefit that attracted more than 4,000 runners and earned $55 million for cancer research.
Williams spent many hours on the beach behind her condo, until her cancer-weakened body could no longer climb those stairs.
“That was my solitude... just walking or sitting on the beach, reading and watching the water,” she once told me.
Another daughter, Beth Sintik of Ashtabula, spent the last remaining months at her mother’s bedside at the Cleveland Clinic and the condo, nearly 24 hours a day, with a later assist from hospice and the other daughters.
Jo’s husband, Bob Williams, was at one time one of Ashtabula’s most respected amateur golfers.

This writer can be contacted at (937) 236-6032; or at mickeyz@zoomtown.com.

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