The first of four daughters, Josephine (Jody) Mary Holcomb was born to Rose and Mike Martorano in the town of Sopris, Colorado, during The Great Depression, a time when new clothes were hand-me-downs and she really did have to walk three miles in the snow to get to school. Growing up in a two-room, adobe house, she feared Hitler’s army, celebrated the Allied victory, rationed food and gas, and saved every penny. Though Jody never learned to speak Italian, her family’s native language, she knew all the swear words, which meant she was basically half-fluent. As a devout Catholic, she sang and played piano by ear for her church. Though Jody and her sisters didn’t have much in the way of clothes or toys, they had a fun childhood, the love of their devoted mother, and the protection of their hard-working coal miner father.
Tragedy struck when Jody was fifteen. After her pelvis was crushed in a bike accident, she developed Rheumatic Fever. Thanks to the recent invention of penicillin, she was saved, though the infection left her paralyzed and with a heart murmur. Doctors said she’d never walk again, that she wouldn’t live past the age of twenty. She proved them wrong on both counts and learned how to walk after a year and lived well past her twenties. Much of her recovery can be attributed to her devoted mother, who lovingly cared for her day and night.
After high school, she married a man she thought was her true love. Soon after the honeymoon, he revealed himself to be a monster, breaking her nose twice for ruining dinner, controlling every aspect of her life, and threatening to shoot her parents if she left him. When she finally found the courage to escape after eleven years of hell, she took his guns and just a few hundred dollars, fleeing to Las Vegas, the only town in the country that allowed a divorce without both signatures. The day she arrived in Vegas, she cried profusely when the cab driver picked her up from the station, telling him she had no idea what to do. He took her to his apartment complex and found her a place to live and introduced her to people who helped her get a job.
She soon found she enjoyed Las Vegas, working as a change girl and then a waitress on the strip and serving famous celebrities. She made lots of friends and even fell in love again. She met and married keno writer John Holcomb (later a blackjack dealer and then a pit boss) while working at The Freemont. During her marriage to her previous husband, she’d been told by doctors that she couldn’t conceive. Yet, she miraculously gave birth to a daughter, Lynn, in the summer of ‘66 and another, Tamra, in the summer of ‘72.
Jody kept a warm, loving home for her children, volunteering at their schools, providing a safe and welcoming environment for their friends, and preparing delicious, home-cooked Italian meals. Her home was always open to extended family and was the center of activity during every holiday. When she wasn’t taking care of family, Jody enjoyed reading romance novels and she continued singing and playing piano.
Jody and John worked hard throughout life, owning various businesses, including a denim retail business, a food trailer, and several used car dealerships and smog stations. With their income, they were able to buy each new home with cash and save for their retirement. Several grandkids later, John died of lung cancer, and Jody sold her home and followed Tamra to Texas. Eventually, Lynn and most of the grandchildren moved to Texas, too.
Jody loved and spoiled her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Her family was her joy and reason for living. A diagnosis of Alzheimer’s changed everything, and her family watched helplessly as the disease slowly stole their mother and grandmother until it finally claimed her life. After beating all odds and surviving to just one day shy of her 85th birthday, she leaves behind a gaping hole in all of their hearts.
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