Jo Wright Obituary

The Reverend Jo Anne Steinheimer Wright of Saint Paul, MN peacefully departed this life on January 28th, 2024. She was 88 years old. Jo struggled with Alzheimer's disease for the last six years of her life, spending her final years in Katy's Cottage, the memory care unit at Episcopal Homes in Saint Paul.

Jo was born in Wichita, Kansas, in 1935, to Everett and Agnes Steinheimer, and was raised by her aunt and uncle, Elizabeth and Gene Steinheimer, in Tucson, Arizona, after her mother died when Jo was nine. She attended Saint Paul's School for Girls in Walla Walla, Washington, and matriculated at Oberlin College at the tender age of 16. She married John Wright in Tucson in 1955. She gave birth to two daughters in Menlo Park, California, and a daughter and a son in Fridley, Minnesota.

In 1968, the family moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where Jo was active in the Headstart early childhood program, the League of Women Voters, and Trinity Episcopal Church. Jo and John divorced in 1976, and Jo received the call to enter the Episcopal priesthood in the years that followed. She enrolled at Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, CA, where she earned her Master of Divinity in 1986. That same year, she was ordained Deacon in the Diocese of Kansas and became the first woman to lead a parish in the diocese at Saint Luke's church in Wamego, KS. She was ordained priest in 1987.

In 1999, she moved to Vinita, OK, and became rector of Saint John's church. It was there that Jo met and fell in love with Mary Mortlock. Jo and Mary lived together until Mary's death in 2017. In 2019, Jo moved to Episcopal Homes in Saint Paul to be near her daughter, Jennifer.

A memorial service is being planned for Saint Christopher's Episcopal Church in Roseville, MN, at a date to be announced.

Jo is survived by daughters Beth Wright (Julie Kaufman), Jennifer Wright (Tom Linder), Melanie Wright (Gary Eason), and son Kennedy Wright (Nicki Belfiore), 11 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made to Episcopal Homes Foundation in Saint Paul, MN.