Ruby Jo Darr Hahn

Ruby Jo Darr was born on Christmas Eve, 1932, in Sumter, SC, as the middle of three daughters born to Reverend Joseph and Mrs. Ruby Darr. Although life as a pastor’s daughter growing up in the small-town South during the Depression years presented its challenges, Ruby Jo loved her family and her life. And she loved the people in the congregations that her father served as pastor.

From the earliest of ages, Ruby Jo loved to read, spending her afternoons in the library after school let out. Ruby Jo never lost this love of books, reading one every couple of days into her 90s. And she could recall what all those books were about!

The Darrs moved to Georgetown, SC when Ruby Jo was in grammar school, and she vividly remembered seeing FDR pass by right in front of their house in an open car on his way to Pine Mountain, GA from Washington, DC. She loved spending the summers on nearby Pawley’s Island, thankful that her family had enough gas rations during the war years to get over to the island. She fondly remembered the fresh, hot doughnuts delivered right to your bedroom window on an island summer morning.

The family moved to Clinton, SC, and Ruby Jo graduated from high school there as class salutatorian in 1951. Her favorite memories of Clinton were attending all manner of Presbyterian College sporting events and hanging around the college boys. She went on to attend Stetson University in Deland, FL, where she would meet her future husband, James Hahn. Jo and Jimmy married in 1955 after she graduated from college, while he was in law school in St. Petersburg, FL. The couple soon moved back to Jimmy’s hometown of Lakeland, FL, after he graduated from Stetson Law School in 1957 and began to practice law. They would spend the next 55 years of their lives in Lakeland, which truly became home for her.

Jo Hahn taught as an elementary school teacher until giving birth to her son, Paul, in 1962. That same year, Jo and Jimmy helped plant Lakeside Baptist Church as lay leaders. Lakeside would remain their church home and a huge part of their lives for the next 50 years. Believing in and following Christ as Savior and King was the central organizing principle of Jo’s life; belonging to Christ was her only comfort throughout her life all the way to death. Paul has sweet memories of her reading the Bible to him and answering his questions about God from the youngest of ages. Jo helped organize and lead ESL and US citizenship programs through the church for the broader community in Lakeland. She loved this work and made many friends for life through it.

Jo, or “Jogee” as her family called her, went on to be a mother-in-law, grandmother, and great grandmother; a cancer survivor; an amazing care-giver for a spouse with dementia, all the way through his death; and a person who adapted to a lot of change in her later years as a widow, living in Knoxville, TN, Atlanta, GA, Athens, GA, and Raleigh, NC. In Raleigh, she spent her last couple of years living with her oldest granddaughter, MaryFran Anderson, and her family. She delighted in breakfasting with her great granddaughters each day before they headed off to school or other adventures. Then Jogee would head off to her own adventures in her next book.

Jo Hahn died peacefully at her Raleigh, NC residence, in the very early morning hours of Sunday, February 4, 2024. She was ninety-one years old.

Jo was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and by her two sisters, Blanche Ellen Darr Smith and Mary Sue Darr Loveland. She is survived by her son, Paul, and his wife, Fran. She is also survived by her four grandchildren – MaryFran Hahn Anderson, Duggan Hahn, Bailey Hahn Lindsey, and Jim Hahn – and her four great-granddaughters – Charlotte and Grayson Anderson, and Kit and MaryJane Lindsey.

A graveside service will be held Saturday, February 24, 2024, at 11:00am, at Lakeland Memorial Gardens, 2125 Bartow Rd, Lakeland, FL 33801. All friends of Jo Hahn and the family are welcome to attend.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be given in Jo Hahn’s honor to Redeemer Presbyterian Church, with “Jo Hahn memorial” in the tag line, and sent to Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 903 N St Marys St, San Antonio, TX 78215.