Mary Jo Adams
Mary Jo Adams
May 26, 1946 – January 29, 2011
Visitation: 12:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m., with the family present to greet friends from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 02, 2011 at Smith Funeral Home in Grinnell
Funeral Service: 10:30 a.m., Thursday, February 03, 2011 at Grinnell Christian Church
Interment: following the service on Thursday, February 03, 2011 at Westfield Cemetery south of Grinnell
Memorials: Mary Jo Adams Memorial Fund, PO BOX 368, Grinnell, Iowa 50112. Proceeds will be used to benefit the American Cancer Society for research on Inflammatory Breast Disease.
Mary Jo was born on May 26, 1946 in Grinnell, Iowa to Lloyd and Myrtle Hockett Gilbert. She was raised in Grinnell and she graduated from Grinnell High School with the class of 1964. She then attended Paris Beauty Academy in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Following her education, she opened a beauty salon in her home in Gilman, Iowa. She was united in marriage to Ronald Adams on September 14, 1974 in Elk Point, South Dakota. The couple resided near Malcom and she began working at Vogue Styling Salon in Grinnell. She operated Country Curls out of her home and then opened Mane Attraction in Malcom, before assisting the residents of the Mayflower Community in Grinnell as a stylist.
Mary Jo was a loving and giving person. She dearly loved her children and grandchildren and supported them by attending many of their activities. Her enjoyments included car rides in the Corvair, dancing, going on girls’ trips out of state, trips to the Dairy Barn in the summer, having coffee with the girls on Friday mornings, and preparing holiday dinners for her family. In recent years, she was an active participant in cancer awareness walks and events. Mary Jo was a member and deacon of the First Presbyterian Church in Grinnell and she was also a member of the Sheridan Women’s Group. She was an active volunteer for the hospice program and at the gift shop at Grinnell Regional Medical.
Mary Jo is survived by her husband of thirty-six years, Ron Adams of Grinnell; her children, Tim (Robin) Elliott and Janene (Damian) Imhoff, both of Grinnell; her step daughters, Angela (Jeff) Hinman of Belmond, Iowa and Teresa Adams of Kellogg, Iowa; eight grandchildren, Jake Adams, Jessica and Lisa Hinman, Madison and McKinze Elliott, and Ashlyn, Rylie and Dawson Imhoff ; and her sisters, Lois (Mike) Reid of Phoenix, Arizona and Pat (Gary) Jolley of Mansfield, Texas. Mary Jo was preceded in death by her parents; and her sister, Virginia Lee Gilbert.
