Marian "Jody" Jo (Curry) Erwin

Marian Jo “Jody” (Curry) Erwin, age 94, was lost to us all on March 11, 2026, after a long and adventurous life. In her last moments she was surrounded by her loved ones at the home of her daughter Janette and husband Brett Adams, where she was cared for lovingly until the end.

Born September 25th, 1931, in Dixon County, Nebraska, Jody was the daughter and second of five children born to Earl Dewey Curry and Ruby Grace (Randol) Curry. She was the sister of Randol Dewy Curry and is survived by her other siblings Ruby Claire Doolittle, Yvonne Nadine Erwin, and Bruce Elwin Curry, the last of whom gave her the nickname of Jody when he was just a toddler.

She was the devoted wife of William Charles Erwin, her great love and fellow adventurer, who preceded her in death on December 8th, 2020.

She is survived and will be cherished in memory by her five children, Douglas Larry Erwin, Bradley William Erwin, Terese Elaine Tacklind, Janette Deanne Adams and Pamela Jo Erwin. She is also survived by six grandchildren, Brandon, Deanna, Amber, Brody, Milo, and Rainer along with four great grandchildren and a foreign exchange student Crispin Quijada who became an honorary son along with his daughter Christina.

Jody grew up on a family farm in Dixon County Nebraska, reared by parents she admired and adored. Before graduating high school, a young William Erwin set his sights on young and winsome Jody Curry and maneuvered an invitation to dinner at her family home after driving a tractor through snow drifts, along train tracks, to reach her house. The two were soon inseparable and married on June 22, 1951. They both studied to become teachers, and she received her teaching degree from Morningside College in Sioux City IA, sometimes driving 70 miles with her three children in tow to attend classes.

Bill and Jody raised their first three children while furthering their education and teaching in the Midwest, first in Sioux City Iowa, then South Dakota, and even for a year on a Reservation school in Macy, Nebraska. During this time Jody recognized in herself a great affinity with children, both in the classroom and in her home where she was a natural, playful mother.

In 1969, anticipating an empty nest, Bill & Jody added a fourth child to their family followed quickly by a fifth. By 1980, Jody had moved with her husband and two youngest daughters to Colorado Springs Colorado where she was enamored with the Rocky Mountains and the scrubby beauty of the high altitude so different from the landscape of her youth. But her adventure didn’t end there.

In an event appealing to their wanderlust natures, Bill & Jody were offered teaching jobs in Indonesia and taught at the prestigious international school in the capital of Jakarta. From there, it was on to international schools in Sanaa Yemen, Warsaw Poland, and back again to Jakarta Indonesia. They retired from teaching in 1995 and moved back to their home in Colorado Springs where they could look out at Pikes Peak from their kitchen windows.

Wherever she lived, Jody carried inside her a spirit of adventure and curiosity about people, and the world around her. Harkening back to her Midwestern roots that never left her, she possessed a wonder of and connection to the natural world, living with her Christian convictions and an abiding faith in the divine.

She brought warmth and levity to any room she entered. She enjoyed passing on her curiosity about the world not just to the children she taught but to anyone who would listen. She had a bright inviting smile and was quick to laugh even if she was the butt of the joke. She moved through the world with childlike openness and as a result made friends easily and everywhere. She poured all her magic into the people in her life, and we will carry that magic with us in our hearts forever.

For those who knew and loved Jody, her loss leaves us all like books with so many missing pages. She was special and she was ours and we are poorer without her.

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to Jody’s LifePath at-home hospice dedicated care team; Coleen and Marie, who not only cared for her this past year with dignity and respect but also opened their hearts and showed such incredible love and empathy for our darling mother as well as to her family. We cannot thank you enough.

The immediate family will be having a private memorial service. A Celebration of Life to be held in Colorado Springs, Colorado at a later date. The family will share more information in the following weeks for those who would like to attend.