Jo Wickert

Melba Joann “Jo” Wickert, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and longtime resident of the Memphis community, passed away peacefully in hospice care at the Putnam County Care Center on October 29, 2025, at the age of 89, after a years-long battle with dementia.

Jo was born May 21, 1936, to Joseph William Tiemann and Viola Frederika Amelia (Hoehne) Tiemann and raised in LaGrange, Missouri, graduating from LaGrange High School in 1954. She then attended and graduated from Culver Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, in 1958 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education. She was a member and actively involved in her sorority, Sigma Kappa, serving as President. She taught PE and coached for five years in Meredosia, Illinois, and while teaching there, met and began dating another teacher, Loren Wickert. They married on May 21, 1960, on her 24th birthday, at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in LaGrange, Missouri. In 1963, their son, Scott, was born, and two years later, when Loren bought an existing insurance agency in Memphis, Missouri, they moved to Missouri and made Memphis their home. Their daughter, Angie, was born in 1970.

Jo was very involved with their church, St. Paul Lutheran, in Memphis, teaching Sunday School and Vacation Bible School for over 25 years. She also delivered Meals on Wheels every Thursday for 20 years and volunteered for several years through the Ministerial Alliance at the local Food Pantry and the Clothes Closet

You would often see Loren and Jo attending softball, football, basketball, and baseball games for all their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, traveling as far as Alabama, Florida, and Georgia to watch them compete. She and Loren loved to travel and drove to nearly every state over the last 40 years.

As we say our goodbyes to Jo, we celebrate a life well-lived in a community where her kindness touched many.

Jo is survived by her son, Scott Wickert of Memphis; her daughter, Angie (Wickert) Dunn and husband, Kris, of Birmingham, AL; four grandchildren, Matt Wickert and wife, Kara, of Memphis; Kellyn (Wickert) Robinson and husband, Blane, of Unionville; Drew Dunn and wife, Riley, of Rogers, Arkansas; and Brady Dunn of Auburn, Alabama.
She also has eight great-grandchildren: Khloe (Stetson Spees), Kabe, Kallen, and Kwyn Hamlin; Myles Wickert; and Sawyer, Rhys, and Beckham Robinson; and a great-great-granddaughter, Aubrey Spees. She is also survived by her sister, Nancy Kay (Tiemann) Jones and husband Bob of Washington, MO, and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her loving husband of nearly 65 years, Loren Wickert, who just passed in March of 2025, and her parents, Joseph and Viola Tiemann.