Jo Anne Horne

Jo Anne Quillian Horne was born April 15, 1931, at Schotts Memorial Hospital in Poteet, Texas, to Thelma Bennack Quillian and Roy Dunlap Quillian, Sr. Jo Anne died Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021, in San Antonio, Texas.

Jo Anne attended Pleasanton schools and learned to play the piano from her mother, Thelma. In the fourth grade, she began playing the drums in the high school band because there were no other drummers. After graduating from Pleasanton High School in 1947, Jo Anne attended a semester at Trinity University in San Antonio and a semester at Southwest Texas State College in San Marcos before transferring to The University of Texas at Austin. As a music major, Jo Anne studied harp, pipe organ and percussion, and in 1951 was awarded a bachelor’s degree in Music Education.

On March 1, 1952, Jo Anne married Ivan F. Horne, Sr., a fellow UT Austin student and musician, at the First Methodist Church in Pleasanton. After Ivan earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music from The University of Texas, he joined the Air Force and was stationed at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, Texas, for a mere six months before the newlyweds were transferred to Ramey Air Force Base in Puerto Rico. While there, Jo Anne taught 4th grade at the base elementary school. She often stated that she remembered this brief year of her life with warmest memories as it was the farthest, she had ever traveled from Texas. The Pleasanton Express at the time even published a series of Jo Anne's columns relating her experiences in Puerto Rico.

After leaving the Air Force, Ivan returned to the University of Texas to earn a master’s degree in Music. In that year, Ivan and Jo Anne were members of the Austin Symphony Orchestra: Ivan as principal oboist and Jo Anne as the timpanist. As Ivan embarked on a career as a band director, the young couple lived in Weimar, Texas, where they welcomed their oldest son, Ivan. They then moved to Freer, Texas, where their second son, David, was born. In both towns, Jo Anne taught piano to help support the young family.

The family next moved to Corpus Christi for a few years, where Ivan directed the Tuloso-Midway band and Jo Anne taught English. It was then that Ivan decided to change careers and attend the University of Texas School of Dentistry in Houston. The young family relocated to Houston where Jo Anne taught school at Spring Branch Junior High School while Ivan studied for his Doctorate in Dental Science.

When Ivan graduated in 1965, the family returned to Pleasanton for a few months while Ivan set up his dental practice and the couple searched for their forever home in San Antonio. Jo Anne taught English at Eisenhower Middle School for one year, and in December 1966, they welcomed their only daughter, Sherry, to the family.

For the next few years, Jo Anne devoted her life to helping Ivan with his growing dental practice and raising their three children. As graduates of The University of Texas and avid Longhorn fans, they enjoyed watching games and many other alumni activities. But after less than five years practicing dentistry, Ivan was diagnosed with cancer and died on December 27th, 1970.

Determined to best provide for her family, Jo Anne enrolled at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio to obtain a master’s degree in Library Science. She graduated at the top of her class in 1973, and was fortunate - indeed, she would say blessed - to be hired as Librarian at Larkspur Elementary School in San Antonio, where her daughter Sherry would be entering second grade. Jo Anne loved her work and maintained the librarian position at Larkspur until she retired in 1993.

From that year until 2013, Jo Anne operated a piano studio as well as engaging in numerous interests and hobbies. Jo Anne loved to go fishing at the Quillian Ranch and at Rockport, but she found particular peace and tranquility on the beach in Port Aransas. She was an outstanding cook but never wanted to admit it. Her love of cookies, muffins and pastries laid the foundation for her baking mastery, which ultimately brought her fame for her lemon cake: a winner at a family reunion. Jo Anne also enjoyed needlework projects of all kinds, gifting her loved ones and decorating her home with her designs. When arthritis hindered those projects, she took on others, including stamp collecting, reading, and tending to her golden retrievers. Adding to her cultural enrichment, a lifetime of music performance and study enabled her to name virtually any classical piano or symphonic work she heard.

Jo Anne believed that sharing her love of music with her grandchildren through piano lessons was the greatest gift she could give them. She taught piano to all eight of her beloved grandchildren, just as her mother had done with her own grandchildren.

As an avid reader and history buff, Jo Anne delved deeply into genealogy. She was a longtime member of and volunteered regularly for the San Antonio Genealogical and Historical Society (SAGHS). Every year for 25 years, she traveled with a group from SAGHS to Salt Lake City, Utah, to the Family History Library. She would spend hours in the library reading and researching genealogy. She also loved seeing the sites in Salt Lake City and discovered favorite restaurants and routines that she enjoyed every year. After her mother completed writing a family book, A Branch of Quillians, Jo Anne presented a copy to the library during one of her visits. Her strong connection to history led her to memberships in the Daughters of the American Revolution, San Antonio de Bexar Chapter and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Alamo Mission Chapter.

Jo Anne and Ivan joined St. Francis Episcopal Church in 1965. In 1980, Jo Anne transferred her membership to Christ Episcopal Church, but in her senior years, distance and traffic necessitated her attending nearby St. Francis. But just last year, Jo Anne decided to return to Christ Episcopal Church, where services for her will be held on Thursday, September 30, at 10 a.m., followed by graveside services at Mission Burial Park at the Dominion.

Service will be livestreamed and can be viewed at: https://www.cecsa.org/live-stream

Jo Anne is preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Ivan; and three siblings, sister, La Merle Koehl, and brothers, Roy D. Quillian Jr., and Wesley Quillian.

She is survived by her sons, Ivan F. Horne Jr. and wife, Kathleen, and David Murray Horne; her daughter, Sherry Denise Philippus and husband, Jon; eight grandchildren, Sara Floyd and husband, Colton, Joshua Horne, Emily Porter and husband, Garrett, Kirsten Lang and husband, Ian, Casey Horne and wife, Shayne, Lindsay Philippus, Daniel Philippus and Cynthia Philippus; four great-grandchildren, Owen Ryker Floyd, Rhett Axel Floyd, Presley Marie Lang and Pierce Murray Lang; first cousins, Virginia May Bennack, Phil Bennack and Susan Bennack Bagwell; dear friend and cousin-in-law, Margie Bennack; daughter-in-law, Ingrid Horne; numerous nieces, nephews and other relatives; and countless friends.

The family has requested that memorials for Jo Anne be made to the San Antonio Genealogical and Historical Society.