Mary Jo Monfore, 85, of Wagner

As submitted by daughter, Mary Hurd

At 3:54 pm Sunday, July 26, Mary Jo (Carmody) Monfore was raised up on eagle's wings to be with her beloved husband of nearly 64 years, Robert Paul Monfore. Burial will be Tuesday, July 28th, 2020 at 4 pm at the cemetery overlooking our land. Father Joe Forcelle of Saint Vincent Catholic Church will officiate. Please join us as we say goodbye and celebrate Mom and Dad being reunited. Do bring lawn chairs and a shovel—Dad still wouldn't want anybody standing around when there is work to be done! Also, if you happen to have a Hawaiian shirt to wear, Mom would love that -- she and Dad had so many happy vacations there. You may want to bring your 4-wheelers or 4-wheel-drive vehicles to get up the hill to Mom and Dad's final resting place.

Nourishment and nostalgia (with social distancing, of course) afterwards outside our farm shop. The meal will be catered by Tolsma's Cove (Mom and Dad's favorite place to go out to eat).

A Memorial Mass is planned at a later date.

Mary Jo Monfore, 85, of rural Wagner, South Dakota, passed away peacefully at St. Michael's Hospital, in Tyndall, SD, on July 26, 2020. She leaves her son, Michael Monfore; her daughter Mary (Monfore) Hurd; her younger sister, Rosalie (Carmody) Boozell; her younger brother Patrick 'Larry' Carmody; her younger brother James Carmody; four grandchildren, Kathleen (Monfore) and Anthony Pacheco, Dr. Rob and Sarah (Mooney) Monfore, Dr. Elizabeth (Hurd) and Mr. Matthew Edney, and Sara (Hurd) and Brian Hammel; 7 great grandchildren, Isabelle Marie, Olivia Elise, and Vivian Rose Pacheco, Emily Elizabeth, Joseph William, and John Patrick 'Jack' Edney, and Claire Carmody Hammel; and many, many friends. She was preceded in death by her husband, Col. Robert Monfore, her parents, David and Helen (Keenan) Carmody, her brothers, Michael, David and Stephen Carmody, and her younger sister Margaret Carmody.

Mary Jo was born on January 29, 1935 in Marshalltown, Iowa. She spent most of her youth in Des Moines, Iowa. On February 19, 1955 Mary Jo married Robert Monfore, a reserve Army officer, settling in the rural Dante area of South Dakota. She was known to the neighbors as "City Girl" experiencing an often humorous adjustment to life on the farm. Two children, Michael and Mary, joined the couple over the next three years. In 1956, Mary Jo was selected as one of 100 Grand National Prize winners of the Pillsbury Best Baking Contest at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. In addition to earning her several prizes, her mocha pudding cake recipe was subsequently offered as a Pillsbury boxed product.

In 1958, her husband, Robert, decided to reactivate his military service. This kicked off a series of adventurous assignments around the globe for the couple. In addition to spending time in North Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky, Mary Jo spent 2 years living in Rangoon, Burma, 2 years in Seoul, Korea, and 1 ½ years in Heidelberg, Germany. She embraced these experiences, immersing herself in the local culture and cuisine, and forming a number of long term friendships with those she met. She both taught English and learned the local languages of the foreign countries where they were stationed, and volunteered for the Red Cross.

In 1973, after 27 years of service, Robert retired from the Army and the family moved back to Springfield, South Dakota. They soon resumed full time farming and ranching on their original river bottom property, south of Dante. The couple ran a successful commercial alfalfa hay and cattle business for many years, with Mary Jo as the business manager. After building their dream home on a bluff overlooking the river bottom, Mary Jo spent the next four decades enjoying her grandchildren, supporting her parish, and traveling, often to Hawaii, a personal favorite of both hers and Robert's. She taught catechism at Assumption Catholic Church in Dante and Saint Vincent and Saint Leo Catholic Churches in Springfield and Tyndall, was a member of the Avon American Legion Auxiliary, and was a loving caregiver for her husband in his final years.