Josephine Struble-Ramirez

Josephine (Jo) (Grams) (JoJo) Struble-Ramirez (77) of Wenatchee, WA greeted her last visitors, offered her guests the last of her favorite foods and received her last expressions of love and care from her family, friends, and husband, passing away at home on September 26, 2024. For the previous six weeks she’d had visitors from near and far and loved their attentions, gifts, laughter love and care. She rallied, finding the energy to direct her daughter, daughter in law and granddaughters cooking in her kitchen while passing down family recipes that were dear to her and her loved ones. And she insisted on doing her makeup and looking her best each day. God broke the mold when Josephine was born to the late Agnes and Rexford Struble in March of 1947 in Anacortes, WA. Her father was in the coast guard, and she liked to tell the story of how her mom had to come across in a rowboat from Burrows and Tatoosh Islands in the San Juan’s to get to the hospital when she was born and for supplies etc. Being born in the Baby Boomer generation she was resilient and never met a stranger! She was curious and loved talking with anyone in her path seeking a connection and what she could find in common with them. And she usually found something. She enjoyed stories, remembered details of people’s lives and the birthdays of most of the people she knew or had known. She wasn’t opposed to stories with a little drama. Her oldest granddaughter Ashley was one to keep her up to date on the latest and one of Josephine’s signature sayings was, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” She was always ready to jump in during a crisis or when party planning was needed whether it was delivering a pan of brownies, her famous Huckleberry Lush desert or delivering a meal of Guwampki’s or Chicken Enchiladas. Josephine was a great cook and she enjoyed feeding people. She was the eldest of 3 sisters and later added another sister and brother when her mother Agnes married Bud Harrow. She grew up riding horses and slinging fish in the 50’s and 60’s at the docks during Westport Washington’s heyday of tourists and fishing derbies with everyone wanting a piece of the exciting and abundant charter and commercial fishing happening in those days. Her parent’s owned Deep Sea Charters and Josephine could be found working at the docks or at her parents’ charter office if not cooking up large meals of delicious fried Razor Clams, King Salmon, Dungeness crab and clam chowder or helping her mom bake Wild Blackberry Pies for all the sportsmen and women that ended up sticking around after they came in from charter fishing. Josephine had a plan with all the money she’d been carefully saving from her hard work. After graduation she was going to adventure out of Westport and go to Hawaii. She recruited one of her best childhood friends, Linda and together they embarked on an adventure to visit and then live in Honolulu. This anchored Josephine’s deep affection and love of all things tropical, Hawaii and Hawaiian. She may have stayed on in Hawaii indefinitely, but Linda had other life plans, so Josephine reluctantly returned stateside and spent some time in Southern CA. She’d also spent time in her early career working at Nordstrom in Portland, Oregon while staying with her Auntie Pat and Uncle John. This is where she said she’d become skilled at recognizing fashion, quality fabrics and organizing clothing and closets. You could come home and find your closet color coordinated and perfectly organized and know that Josephine had been there. Josephine ended up back in Westport where she married and became a homemaker. She had two children, Richard, and Jodi Cowles in the late 60’s-early 70’s. The family decided to move from Westport when they sold their commercial fishing boat and business and moved to Kalispell, MT. In Montana Josephine enjoyed endless horseback riding, horse shows, gardening, cross country skiing, camping, and possibly her favorite was having a steady stream of family and friends visiting. She loved loading up her big suburban and driving them to Glacier National Park to see the beauty of Montana, Lake McDonald, Many Glacier and the Rocky Mountains. She was known for being able to drive on that narrow “Going To The Sun Highway” while simultaneously pointing out the sights. Her daughter was usually somewhere in the Suburban full of loved ones and the narrative went something like, “On your left here is the gorgeous “Bird Woman Falls”……. “MOM, we look at the sights and you watch the ROAD!” Ha, ha. To her credit every expedition made it back safely. Finding a business to purchase in Wenatchee, WA Josephine and family moved to Wenatchee, Washington in 1986 where they purchased a long-established floral business in the area, Milot-Mills Florist And Garden Center. Josephine had started working in the floral business back in Montana and was really in her element designing arrangements, getting to know her customers quite well and growing plants in the garden center. She also brought in beautiful Christmas Trees grown by longtime family friends in Shelton, WA. that were a big hit and were offered natural or flocked and delivered. She got especially excited about designing specialty pieces and designs for many of life’s most memorable occasions. For funerals and weddings, she was known to incorporate and create items like a wagon wheel or add personal items with sentimental meaning to her designs. She was ever creative and a talented designer. She could have gone on to teach floral design or relocated to New York or LA and moved into the influential event planning and design space with her exuberant and opulent designs and creations. One of her favorite memories was attending the Rose Parade in Pasadena California with her son Richard. She loved watching on tv and was so excited to go in person. She was thrilled to watch how they put the floats together, the horses, and all the pomp and circumstance etc. Josephine loved her grandkids and drove them everywhere including their activities and games. The kids enjoyed her free spirit and impromptu activities like early morning drives to spot deer and getting a cocoa or Starbucks and going down to the river parks. She loved California, the beaches, and her trips to visit her son’s family there. She was known to disappear for most of a day just exploring beaches and picking up shells, rocks or looking for sea glass. She enjoyed watching all 5 of her grandkid’s activities and keeping up with their lives. She loved attending their games and supporting their activities. Josephine adored Christmas and was so committed to getting boughs in the forest for her decorating and gift making that she nearly put her eye out on one adventure when the pole saw she was using malfunctioned and the hard knob on the rope sprung back and hit her in the eye. This did not discourage her from future trips to gather greenery, and thankfully her eye fully recovered. She appreciated anyone who would go with her on these quests as they were something she looked forward to every year. At one point almost everyone she knew was recruited! In the fall of 2022, her son Richard took her on one of her last adventures into the hills to one of her favorite forests near Steven’s Pass. Josephine remarried in the 90’s gaining an additional family in Honduras. During retirement she enjoyed her home on the hill in the Sage Hills area where she loved the view, seeing frequent wildlife and her kids and grandkids hiking the nearby trails and planting trees, beautiful pots of plants and flowers. She was known to enjoy driving the golf cart and exploring new golf courses with her husband Pablo and loved road trips and sight-seeing. She did some road trips with her friends on the west coast and enjoyed helping organize and attending her class reunions in her hometown of Westport, WA. She had a memorable trip with her sister Helen to Michigan and was finally able to get some Petoskey stones to add to her collection of shells stones and sea glass. She enjoyed visiting her Michigan family and exploring more of Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, the Mackinac Bridge, and the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. It was her lifelong dream to see the Northern Lights. They were visible one of the nights she was visiting the Upper Peninsula, but she didn’t catch the right time to see them. Surely, she’ll be seeing them in her next adventures in heaven. She is survived by her husband Pablo Ramirez, Her Son Richard Cowles (wife Noriko) and grandsons Grant and Jefferson Cowles of Long Beach CA; her Daughter Jodi Martin(Cowles) and grandkids Ashley, Kole and Amaya Martin of Wenatchee, WA and Huntington Beach, CA; Her sisters Helen Juntunen-Brown(Husband Dave) of Port Orchard, WA; Kathleen Welch of Cosmopolis, WA and Leta Jo Berg of Westport, WA As well as her beloved nieces and nephews in many locations and many extended family and friends. Josephine was preceded in death by many family members and dear friends including her mother Agnes Harrow, brother Phillip (Bubby) Harrow, stepfather Bud Harrow and biological father Rexford Struble. Aloha and Mahalo dear Josephine, there is great love for you, and you will be greatly missed. Be free and at peace now, we’ll remember you in beautiful sunrises and sunsets, at every beach you’ve been or would have loved, when looking upon a beautiful moon, upon seeing the first snow, we’ll surely try to call you to identify and admire any cool plants, rocks or trees. We’ll remember you in the smiles of your grandchildren and the stories, recipes and traditions you shared that they’ll share with their children and loved ones. Be at peace, we’ve got it from here. May you be eternally riding free on your favorite horse Kim-Kar on those endless beaches of your dreams! Wind at your back and the sun shining warmly upon your face, into the next adventures of your soul’s journey in Heaven. There will be a memorial service on Saturday October 12, 2024, at 3 PM at Jones & Jones - Betts Funeral Home 302 9th St., Wenatchee, WA. Following there will be a reception at the home of Pablo Ramirez by invitation. In memory of Josephine please consider a donation in her name to the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society https://www.wenatcheehumane.org.

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Josephine Struble-Ramirez

March 7, 1947 - September 26, 2024