| My Great Grandma Jo was a truly original person | | | | thread for Bingo prizes for the "old people" in the |
| who lost her battle with breast cancer in 2000. She | | | | nursing home. Grandma Jo would always let us |
| struggled with the disease for more than 10 years | | | | choose something for ourselves to take home. I |
| and was a tough p3rson who refused to die. During | | | | have kept everything she ever gave me and even |
| her life, she was a wedding dress seamstress, a | | | | though most of the necklaces don't fit me anymore |
| gardener, a jewelry designer, a collector of Native | | | | or are outdated, I will always treasure them. |
| American arrowheads, and a real go getter of a | | | | Grandma Jo was very tough. She had a double |
| person. She was well versed in many | | | | masectomy, and chemotherapy. She lost all her hair. |
| crafts-crocheting, knitting, quilting, and making beaded | | | | During her on and off struggle in and out of remission |
| jewelry. She passed on her love of beaded jewelry | | | | with breast cancer, she lost her husband. Great |
| to me, her great-granddaughter and namesake, and I | | | | Grandpa Dale had a failing heart and had to go to a |
| make jewelry for sale in honor of her. | | | | nursing home. He passed away within the same year. |
| Emily Josephine Leisure was a native Kansas who | | | | Grandma Jo was told many times that she would |
| was raised through the depression years by her | | | | also die. She was sent home to die many times and |
| mother, Winnifred Leisure. She married my great | | | | kept on living and doing what she loved. Eventually |
| grandfather who was part Delaware Indian in secret | | | | the cancer got into her bones. Her back |
| and worked in a salt mine in Hutchinson, Kansas. My | | | | broke-literally-and she was told she would not walk |
| great-grandfather was Dale Stout and he was a | | | | ever again. She did walk again. It was only when the |
| professional house painter. They lived in the same | | | | cancer spread to her brain that she did eventually |
| house in Hutchinson for 40 years. They had 3 sons, | | | | lose her life after a more than 10 year battle with |
| Jack, Steve, and John Stout. My great-uncle Jack | | | | the disease. We all loved her dearly and still miss her. |
| was a professional artist (painter). A different type | | | | I wish she could have met my sons, but I tell them |
| of painter than his father. According to my family, | | | | about her. She was an amazing person and I am |
| Grandpa Dale used to let his son Jack paint the walls | | | | proud to be from a lineage of tough women who are |
| of his room in murals for practice, then he would just | | | | strong-willed, creative, and determined. |
| paint over it and start over! Emily Josephine (or | | | | I have a lot of qualities in common with my Great |
| Grandma Jo as we all called her) and Grandpa Dale | | | | Grandmother. I am named Emily after her. The name |
| also had a daughter, Sharon. She is my grandmother | | | | itself means ingenious, creative. I also crochet, |
| and also sews, makes jewelry, and has had breast | | | | scrapbook, play the flute (oh, did I mention Grandma |
| cancer. Sharon had 3 daughters- Vickie, Nicholi and | | | | Jo once won an award for writing the winning school |
| Penni. My Aunt Nickie passed away from breast | | | | fight song?), and I design and make jewelry from |
| cancer as well. I guess you could say it runs in the | | | | gemstones, shell, crystal, glass and wood. I have |
| family. | | | | started my first website after selling through art and |
| When I was a little girl, all my Cabbage Patch Kid | | | | craft fairs for a couple years. My web address is [ |
| clothes and Barbie clothes were made by the women | | | | The name of my business is Feminine Flair Jewelry. I |
| in my family...especially Grandma Jo. When I would go | | | | have a handmade breast cancer bracelet available on |
| over to her house, she would show my brother and | | | | my website. |
| sister and I her arrowhead collection, rocks that she | | | | I know that Grandma Jo is proud of me. I can tell my |
| found in Arizona, some that she tumbled herself, | | | | children what all the gemstones are, and the |
| fossils and all the jewelry she had made. She had a | | | | meanings of them. I am also a story-teller and have a |
| lot of African Trade beads and things made out of | | | | series of stories I made up for my sons about a |
| gemstone. She would let us touch everything and tell | | | | fictional police character. I wish that she could be |
| us what all the stones were. She had a good story | | | | here to see my work now that I am a 30-year-old |
| to go with each item, something about where she | | | | adult and give me feedback on my art and jewelry |
| got it from or whom it belonged to, that made it | | | | designs, but my mom says I am a lot like her. I hope |
| very special. | | | | if I ever have breast cancer that I can be as tough |
| Everything was exciting with Grandma Jo. As she | | | | as my Great Grandma Jo and my Grandma Sharon |
| became elderly, she lost her eyesight. She would still | | | | have been. |
| string beads by feel with a needle and stringing | | | | |