Josephine “Jo” Linnea Johnson Rennich of Oak Ridge died peacefully at home on May 9. She was 101 years old.

Jo and her husband, the late George Rennich, and their five children moved to Oak Ridge from Glen Rock, N.J., in 1954. Prior to that, the family lived in several other locations, including Pittsburgh, Pa., Long Island, N.Y., and Johannesburg, South Africa.

Jo was born on June 24, 1912, in Fleming Park, Pa., and raised in the town of McKees Rocks, Pa., both just northwest of Pittsburgh. The youngest of five children of a Swedish immigrant family, she was an honor student in high school and went on to earn a B.A. degree from the Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham College) and an M.Ed. degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She taught at the junior high school level for several years before and after her marriage in 1941. [Read more…]