Annie Jo Echols

Annie Jo Harpe Echols

Annie Jo Harpe was born in Thomaston, Georgia on October 7, 1934 right down the road in a little house on HWY 19 North. She entered Heaven’s gates on January 28, 2021. She was the youngest of five children born to “Della” Ethelia White and Marion “Martin” Harpe. As a young girl, Annie Jo recalled helping her mother stuff sausages in the kitchen and watching her Daddy milk the cows in their barn. She lived in Thomaston, Georgia until she graduated from Robert E Lee High School in 1952 as one of five honor graduates. She attended the Georgia State College for Women under a full scholarship and was awarded a Certificate in Business Administration in 1954. She moved to Atlanta to live with her oldest sister, Mary Frances and husband Sam Ewing. Jo worked at the General Insurance Company for one year. (Mom started going by the name “Jo” in college, but she remained “Annie Jo” to all her family and everyone in Thomaston even to this day!)

Annie Jo started dating Joe Oliver Echols (also from Thomaston, Georgia) when he came home from serving four years in the Air Force. Annie Jo was three years younger than Joe, and when he came home, he commented that she had grown up while he was gone! Their first date was to go out for ice cream after play practice at church for the Christmas pageant where Joe played Joseph and Jo (that is, Annie Jo) played Mary! They were married on September 4, 1955 in Thomaston, Georgia at Antioch United Methodist Church (right here behind us today!) Joe worked for Western Electric in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Their first two children were born in Winston-Salem: Joe Oliver, Jr on July 19, 1956, and Sharon Lynn on August 28, 1959. The family was transferred to Atlanta with AT&T in 1963. The family grew and thrived with the addition of Wendy Kay on October 13, 1969.

So, there were a lot of “Joes” in my family! When the phone rang and someone asked for “Joe”, I literally had to ask them, “Do you want Papa Joe, Mama Jo, or brother Joe?” And then when our daughter was born, we named her after Mom and called her Joanna. My mother began to call her “Jo Baby”!!! She was the only one who lovingly called her that! My Dad usually called Mom, “Honey”. I didn’t think much of it until my nephew, Will started calling her “Honey” before he realized that the other grandchildren called her “Granny”!

Jo loved her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. She worshipped at the First United Methodist Church of Tucker, Georgia for almost 58 years. She sang in the chancel choir and (together with Venie Roberts) designed the music library in the early 70’s which she maintained until 2018. She was also a faithful member of the United Methodist Women. Jo and Joe developed lifelong friends in their C.O.M.E.T. (Count On Me Every Time) Sunday School class. For years, she played the piano for the class to sing hymns together. They went on many class retreats and enjoyed quite a few ice cream socials!

Our family lived on Lone Star Trail in Doraville, GA for 55 years. We had many great neighbors who were also “long timers” and it was a safe neighborhood to grow up in. All the kids played in the street or went from one house to the next freely until my father stood at the end of the driveway and whistled. We could hear that whistle all over the neighborhood and came right home to dinner. It was a good life! My parents were instrumental in getting the neighborhood swim club opened, and our family was the first member. I remember being so excited that the swim patch on my bathing suits were #1 !!! Wendy was an avid swimmer and did very well with the swim team.

Since Mom and Dad both grew up in Thomaston, their parents lived right down the road from each other. As a kid, it seems to me that we went to Thomaston every weekend. We sometimes stayed with the Harpes, and sometimes stayed with the Echols. The cool thing was that as a kid, we could walk from one grandparent’s house to the other. Sometimes we took a shortcut through the neighbor’s corn field! Often we stopped at the local general store and bought a piece of candy or an ice cream cone. There were always cousins to play with and fields to explore. This town is definitely “HOME” for both of my parents. Today we lay my mother to rest in the Echols family plot right beside my father, but it just so happens that the Harpe family plot is adjacent to the Echols family plot, so her parents and sisters are laid to rest right beside her.

I don’t know when Mom first developed her love for clothes, but she had a wardrobe collection that she added to on a regular basis (even as recently as December!) My mother always looked “well put together”. She had shoes to match every outfit, and purses to go along! She had earbobs and bracelets and necklaces not only in every color, but in multiple shapes. She adored getting her hair done at the beauty parlor and having her nails done in Tucker. She was a classy lady who exuded a lot of southern charm!

Everyone who knew my mother, loved her. That is a treasure to me. People have been sending in condolences and greetings that describe her sweet smile, her warm heart, and her genuine way of making everyone feel welcome in her home. When you look up “Southern Hospitality” in the dictionary, you will see a picture of my mother’s face! I was fortunate to have grown up in such a loving home. My mother was a “stay-at-home” Mom. She was so good at what she did. She ran the household, cooked all the meals, did all the shopping, bought all the gifts, ran us kids to every piano lesson, baseball practice, cheerleading practice, drill team, or Scouts meeting, and never complained. She was always at home when I walked in the door from school and she wanted to hear all about my day. She loved her family and she loved serving us! WE WERE LUCKY!!!!! I feel like she influenced my life in a very positive way and made me want to serve my family in the exact same way.

After my Dad’s retirement, Jo and Joe would often head out on their Honda Gold Wing for a quick getaway up into the mountains with their good friends, Bill and Carolyn McDaniel. Together they called themselves, “The Long Cuts”!!! Sometimes I don’t think they had a destination in mind, because spending time together WAS the whole point of the journey! They also enjoyed lounging in the yard swing at their cabin on Lake Jackson (which was right around the corner from the McDaniel’s cabin) or going out to eat fried catfish. All of the grandchildren loved to go to the lake house and we each learned to ski (or at least tried!) My mother even water skied and tootled around the lake on their jet ski! My Mom was simply fun to be around!

Oh, my parents loved to go out to eat dinner! If it was Friday afternoon and your phone rang, you could best believe it would be Jo or Joe asking, “where are we gonna eat tonight?”

Cross stitching was Mom’s favorite craft activity. One piece that was very special to her was the long narrow scene of birds which you can see displayed on the back of your bookmarks. She was also quite fond of the quote, “Families Are Forever.” Mom and Dad were very devoted to their family. Over the last twenty years, they hosted many extended family vacations in Litchfield Beach, South Carolina This vacation home has proven to be the spot where many fond memories were made with their grandchildren and C.O.M.E.T. class friends (as Kathryn referred to in her beautiful letter to the “Sistahs”.) If Mom wasn’t playing bocce ball or laying out in the sun, she was playing Phase 10, putting together a puzzle, or talking on the screened in porch in one of the big rockers.

She was a very social person who LOVED to play games. She had a competitive streak about her, as anyone who ever played bocce ball or Phase 10 with her would know! She was quite athletic as well. She played basketball on school teams as she was growing up and later coached softball teams for Wendy. She and my father bowled in a lot of leagues and she often won high score! There are many refrigerator magnets in her home that look like bowling pins with “High Score” printed on them! She stayed physically fit by attending various aerobics, yoga and Pilates classes. She also worked out on “the machines” as she called it, and even started playing water volleyball as recently as this summer! (She was 85.) She had a group of devoted friends who worked out together, and she fondly called them her “aerobics girls.” They went out to lunch together and even vacationed together in Florida!

Jo was predeceased by her adoring husband of 55 years, Joe Oliver Echols in 2011. She was also predeceased by her son, Joe Oliver Echols, Jr in 2013, and her three sisters, Mary Frances, Phoebe, and Patricia. She is survived by her brother, Preston (who is here with us today) and by her two daughters, Sharon and Wendy. She was delighted to have seven grandchildren: Joanna, Matthew, Joshua, Hannah, Abbey, Mallory, and Will. Her vanity license plate was “GRAN 7”. She is also survived by three great grandsons: Alexander, Maddox, and Oliver. Although he’s not talking yet, Xander called her “Great”, and she was just that!

I want to extend a special thank you to each of the family members who could be here today to honor Mom and Granny. And I also want to thank all the family and friends who might be watching a recording of this service. We understand that it is not possible to gather in large numbers at this time, but we thank each of you for being here with us in your hearts and in your prayers. We are eternally grateful for the positive impact that you have had on Mom’s life and her happiness while she was here with us. She recently told me that she had lived a GOOD life and that she was more than ready to go meet Jesus face to face. So we rejoice with her at being able to do just that.

Thank you