Jo was born on April 20, 1929 in Corona, Queens, New York, a daughter of Antonio and Mary (Mele) Chiodi. She was raised and educated in New York City. In 1950, she married the late John J. Nichols of New Hyde Park, New York, with whom she shared her life until his death in 2008. Together they raised a family of four children. Jo was a homemaker, devoted to her family, comforting and protective. A Depression girl, she was frugal and domestic: meals were at home, clothes were often made from pattern books, she sang to her children. John’s job took them all over the country—Oklahoma first, then California, back to New York, then off to Texas. Later, she recalled she was glad for all that, for the opportunity to widen her experience and to “start over” every so often. Later, in Texas, she took up tennis and swimming. Her children grown or nearly grown, she took a job at Foley’s department store in Houston. She found more time to read: detective and lawyer novels, historical fiction. And always newspapers. After John’s retirement they moved to Florida for a time, then to Indio, California, where John died in 2008. She moved on to Laguna Hills, California, and then to Utah, and finally to Massachusetts, always to be close to family.
Devoted to her family, Jo nevertheless liked solitude. She liked crowds because she could be alone in them. She disliked small talk but could talk for hours with a good friend. She followed politics and events and railed at politicians. In her last years she enjoyed the rhythms of desert sun and shadow, the ocean waves, the postcard look of distant mountains. She died peacefully at home.
Her survivors include her children: Michael Nichols of New York City; Patricia Robertson and her husband Chris of Sudbury, Massachusetts; Tim Nichols and his wife Beverly of Sunnyvale, California; Kelli Harrington and her husband Vern of Salt Lake City, Utah; her sisters Anna DePrisco and Antoinette Controne, both of Florida; her grandchildren Daniel Nichols of Virginia, Kenna Robertson, and Kaelin Robertson both of Sudbury, Massachusetts; four great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be held privately.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105.
For additional information and guestbook please visit: Duckett-Waterman.com
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