Jo Ann Noe
1930 - 2022
Jo Ann Noe was an artist, educator, community volunteer, and longtime Galena resident. She earned a teaching certificate from Simpson College and then attended Drake University, graduating in 1968 with degrees in art and education. In Galena, Illinois, she found a warm-hearted and welcoming community and beautiful surroundings, worthy subjects for her lifelong interest in visual art. Jo Ann’s interests were rich and varied, and she pursued them all with passionate intensity. She began making sketches while still a small child, but blossomed into an artist with a distinctive style, working in media as wide-ranging as oil, pastel, and watercolor painting, as well as ink drawing. She made striking portraits, vivid landscapes, and architectural drawings, but branched out into many other areas as well. She made quilts and clothes, children’s books, and puppets, presenting her own puppet shows. She also had gifts in interior design and decoration.
Jo was an artistically gifted, kind, generous, high-spirited, intellectually curious, skeptical, and fiercely independent soul who graced the lives of many over the decades.
Jo Ann Noe was an artist, educator, community volunteer, and longtime Galena resident. She earned a teaching certificate from Simpson College and then attended Drake University, graduating in 1968 with degrees in art and education. In Galena, Illinois, she found a warm-hearted and welcoming community and beautiful surroundings, worthy subjects for her lifelong interest in visual art. Jo Ann’s interests were rich and varied, and she pursued them all with passionate intensity. She began making sketches while still a small child, but blossomed into an artist with a distinctive style, working in media as wide-ranging as oil, pastel, and watercolor painting, as well as ink drawing. She made striking portraits, vivid landscapes, and architectural drawings, but branched out into many other areas as well. She made quilts and clothes, children’s books, and puppets, presenting her own puppet shows. She also had gifts in interior design and decoration.
Jo was an artistically gifted, kind, generous, high-spirited, intellectually curious, skeptical, and fiercely independent soul who graced the lives of many over the decades.
