Josephine Eleanor Triggs

Josephine Eleanor (Menard) (Roemer) Triggs entered eternal life on Tuesday December 13, 2022, in Bend, OR with family at her bedside. Josephine was born October 18, 1930, in Eau Claire, WI, youngest child of George F Menard and Sadie (Sherman) Menard. Jo's surviving Roemer children include Rita, Sharon (Tim) Schmalz, John (Deb), Rozanne (Sid) Anderson, Joseph (Lynette), James (Janice), Michael, Thomas (Veronika) Br. Robert Roemer OFMCAP, Renee (Ron) Bell Roemer, and Fr. Richard Roemer, CFR. Jo's surviving Triggs children include James (Debbie & Aubrey), Juliana, George (Vevi), Bill, and Phillip (Linda). Jo has 38 grandchildren and 27 great grandchildren. She has one surviving sister-in-law Evelyn Menard.

Jo was preceded in death by her parents George and Sadie Menard, husband Bernard H Roemer and husband Deacon Donald J Triggs, siblings Joseph Menard, Agnes and John Greene, Frances and John Maiorana, Doris Gunderson, and George Leonard Menard, stepchildren Dorothy (Triggs) Gordon, Francis Triggs, and grandchildren Channa Triggs, Lucas Triggs, and great grandchild Mitchell Brady.

As a youngster Jo picked berries and beans to help the family make ends meet during the war and the Depression especially after her dad died when she was 13. Her home did not have indoor plumbing until her senior year at Fairchild H.S., WI. After high school, Jo attended college at UW Madison where she met Bern Roemer through the Catholic Newman Center. They married in her junior year at college. Bern and Jo lived in Eau Claire, Madison, and Hollandale, WI, briefly in North Scott and then a 40-acre farm near Bennett, IA. One year after Bern died, on the family farm Jo and her 8 children still living at home moved to Lodi, WI. Jo went back to college and got a master's degree in Library Science. She met Donald Triggs at dances for widowed people through the Catholic Widowers program, and in Dec 1974 they got married and moved to Madison. Jo and Donald lived in Madison and Fond du Lac, WI and in Corvallis and Sublimity OR where Donald served as a local deacon.

Jo enjoyed time with family, gardening and harvesting her large vegetable garden, picnics in parks, card games, reading, morning coffee and root beer floats, Doris Day musicals, big band music, and Jo worked at public libraries in the towns she lived in. Her faith was very important to her and she was involved in many Catholic Church activities.

Visitation will be held December 20th at Weddles Funeral Home in Stayton, OR starting at 5:00 pm, followed by shared stories and rosary at 6:30 pm. On Wednesday December 21 there will be visitation at 9:00 am followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 10:30 am at St. Boniface Catholic Church in Sublimity, OR and burial at Cemetery of Holy Angels in Sublimity with a luncheon to follow. Father Richard Roemer presiding.

All of Jo's family send heartfelt thank yous to family and friends for prayers for Jo, and to the wonderful caregivers both at Sandstone Inn, and the Partners In Care Hospice in Bend OR.