By HDN staff
JOANN JO LEO
HARLEM Joann Maria Jo Leo, 86, died Monday, Nov. 1, 1999, at a Chinook care center of natural causes.
Rosary services will be held 7 p.m. Wednesday in St. Thomas Catholic Church in Harlem. Funeral Mass will be held 11 a.m. Thursday at the church with burial following in Harlem Cemetery.
Leo was born April 12, 1913, in Haarlem, Holland, to Henry and Cornelia (Ruter) Melenbrink. The family moved to Minnesota in 1919 for one year. They then moved to South Dakota and later settled in Missouri. She came to Chinook in 1941.
On Nov. 17, 1941, she married Raymond Leo in Chinook. The couple purchased the former Elmer Hulse farm located west of Harlem. They raised hay and livestock, including Registered Black Angus cattle. They sold the farm in 1973 and moved to Harlem. He died in 1998.
She was an active member of St. Thomas Catholic Church and enjoyed gardening and loved animals.
Leo was preceded in death by two sisters, two brothers, and her husband.
Survivors include brothers, Tony and Joe Melenbrink; sisters, Sister Henretta Melenbrink, Nell Keller, Wilimina Bermingham, Alida Mattingly and Toni Martin, all of Missouri; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Memorials are suggested to St. Thomas Catholic Church.
Arrangements are by Edwards Funeral Home of Chinook.
