Josephine Eloise Larson

Jo Larson, whose 103-year life reflected resilience and joy, passed away peacefully in Cameron Park, California, on August 2, 2026. She trained as a nurse, played piano and sang in church choirs, traveled all over the world, while being a wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She brought a smile and warmth to every community she called home.

Born in 1923 in Turlock, California, Jo attended Modesto Junior College before moving to Oakland to study nursing at Samuel Merritt Hospital. She became an RN and worked from 1945 to 1949 in obstetrics and gynecology, and ear nose and throat medicine. In 1948 she married Donald Larson, also from Turlock, and in 1949 they welcomed the first of three children, a son, Richard. Her husband, Don, joined the United States Army as an officer, and together they traveled and lived from Hawaii to Germany, and throughout the United States. They added two more children to their family, Marlene and Douglas, and Jo played piano and often sang in the church choir along with her husband, while keeping busy as a homemaker and volunteering with the Officer Wives Club. She loved to play bridge and often could be found hosting several tables of ladies playing bridge in her home. Twenty years after she left nursing and while her three children were in college, Jo again entered the nursing field, working part time at blood bank drives for Alameda County. She loved this job, working for fifteen years while making lifelong friends of the nurses with whom she worked.

Jo was predeceased by her husband, Don, in 1990, and then her youngest son, Doug, in 2001. She is survived by her son, Rick, and his wife, Lesley, her daughter, Marlene, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. She was loved by her family, and those people who knew her later in life often said to her daughter, “We just love your mother!” She will be missed by many.