Jo Anne Ford Redburn was released from this life on May 11, 2015. She started this life with her parents, Malcom Afton and Virgie Mae Suchsland Ford on Jan. 31, 1934, in Smith Center. The love of her life, William Franklin Redburn, preceded her in death in 2009. Her family, daughter Cynthia Raeleen and Terry Alan Schmidt of Pittsboro, N. C.; daughter Cheryl Anne Lippert of Great Bend; grandson Ian Michael Lippert of Salina; granddaughter Jessie Rose Lippert of Larned; and great granddaughter Carmella Rose Neal of Larned, will celebrate her life in July with a scattering of her ashes at one of her fishing rivers.
Jo graduated from Nevada, Mo. City High School in 1952. In high school she found her passion for nursing in the Diversified Occupations class, working for Rolla Wray, M.D. She graduated from the St. Louis City Hospital nursing program and earned her Registered Nurse (RN) license in the summer of 1955. She married Bill that fall. At Cox Medical Center in Springfield, Mo. she was the lead nurse when the Cardiac Care Unit was initiated. She was persistent about increasing her nursing skills through out her working life and assisting others in doing the same, including teaching CNA students in Memphis, Tenn. and teaching in-services at Hadley Regional Medical Center in Hays.  She retired from nursing in 1998 and pursued travel, sewing and fishing as her hobbies.
Jo is preceded in death by her parents; sister Carol Lee Ford Shumaker; and husband, Bill.  
An endowed scholarship in Jo’s name at CoxHealth Foundation for nursing students has been initiated to provide financial support to nursing students as Jo was supported by Dr. Wray. Send memorials to the scholarship fund to Ford – Redburn Nursing Scholarship, c/o CoxHealth Foundation, PO Box 8131, Springfield, MO 65801.

Great Bend (Kan.) Tribune, June 14, 2015**