#232 Emma Mae Josephine "Josephine" Powers ( Arthur Erastus PowersHenry Edward "Edward" PowerGeorge Power )

Josephine was born 1 Jan 1924 in Pennsylvania. She died 2 Nov 1999 in Okmulgee, Okmulgee Co., Oklahoma.

Everyone doted on Josephine, nicknaming her "Honey".

Jo did poorly in school and was held back a couple of grades. When she was about 15, with her sister Eleanor married and in her own home, brothers Ralph and Don off in the service, her father gave up trying to keep up the house. He sold it and moved into a boarding house in Conemaugh, his work base. Josephine went to live with her sister, Florence, and spent her week-ends Blairsville with Anna and her family. She was more at home with the Anna's teen age girls than with Florence's teenage boys. Also, Jo had met a boy in Blairsville that she fell in love with. She started a campaign to get her father to allow her to live with Anna. Many arguments and hard feelings later, Arthur consented, and she moved to Blairsville.

On the 1940 census, it shows that Josephine had completed seventh grade.

When she was 18, World War II was at its height, and most of the young men were away in the service, including her boyfriend. Josephine went to work in one of the defense plants that had sprung up in Latrobe, making detonators and antiaircraft and tracer bullets for the U.S. Navy. There, at work, she met John Engle, one of the foremen at the plant and she began dating him. John had been married before, and had a child who died. John seemed to blame his former wife for not taking care of the baby. John and Josephine married in 1945; they had just the one son, John, Jr. The only thing John required of Jo then was that she take good care of the baby. When John came home from work, he would do the cooking, cleaning and the laundry, so she would spend her time with her child.

After the war, John, tried his hand at several jobs finally going to work for Alcoa. After several years there, the factory made a move to Oklahoma, giving their employees the option of moving with them or finding other jobs. The Engles made the move to Okmulgee, Oklahoma and stayed there the rest of their lives.

Josephine learned to sew during the course of the years; she did beautiful work, even learning to tailor. She made her son and husband sport coats and trousers. When her son married, Jo made his bride's bridal gown. When the children arrived she took great delight in making clothes for them and spoiling them; she and John were doting grandparents. Kevin and Carrie called her Mama Jo.

Jo began gaining weight shortly after she married, and that probably contributed to her ill health in later years. She became diabetic, among other problems. In the early part of 1999 she had a stroke and, later in the year; poor circulation resulted in the amputation of her leg. She never seemed to recover from that surgery and died soon after.

Josephine married #233 John R. Engle.

Marriage notes

They married 1945.

 

John was born 30 Dec 1914. He died 18 Aug 2003 in Okmulgee, Okmulgee Co., Oklahoma.

A one line obituary mentioned that he was a glass plant foreman at the time of his death.

Children of this relationship:

#350MiJohn Engle 

1930 U.S. Census, Derry Twp., Westmoreland Co., Pennsylvania, Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002., Roll: 2155; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 16; Image: 356.0; FHL microfilm: 2341889.

1940 U.S. Census, Derry, Westmoreland Co., Pennsylvania, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012, Roll: T627_3629; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 65-30.

Charlotte Hensel, The Arthur Powers Family, (unpublished, 2007).

John R. Engle, Number: 176-05-9031; Issue State: Pennsylvania; Issue Date: Before 1951, Ancestry.com. Social Security Death Index [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2011.

Josephine E. Engle, Number: 211-12-6820; Issue State: Pennsylvania; Issue Date: Before 1951, Ancestry.com. Social Security Death Index [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2011.

Personal recollection of Florence (Powers) Deffler, as related to Tad Deffler.


Line Generation: 4

Relationship: Grand-Aunt