Barbara Ann Amo passed away Monday, 11 January 2021 at Liberty Shores Assisted Living, Poulsbo, from complications related to COVID-19. She was 4 days short of her 97th birthday.
She was born in Seattle, Washington 15 January 1924, to Theodore M. Lui, born near what is now Tallinn, Estonia, and Anna Mae Kelly, born in Galway, Ireland.
She grew up with her parents and siblings Theodore, Patrick, Jerome, and Catherine in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle in a large house with a sunroom overlooking Puget Sound and the busy Seattle Waterfront, where her father worked as a longshoreman.
She attended Sacred Heart Elementary and Holy Angels Academy High School, but left school early to work as a bank teller, helping out her family when her father suffered a disabling dock injury.
She met her husband Ross Dale Amo, at a party when the host said: “There’s a boy next door, just home from the War, why don’t you go over and invite him?” Their first date was burgers and shakes at a small joint overlooking the Lake Union and Lake Washington ship canal. They married in Seattle a few months later on her 22nd birthday, 15 January 1946. She and Ross raised a large family of 7 children, starting out in Seattle then moving to Bainbridge Island in 1965.
She was full of loving energy, hitting the deck running every morning caring for her husband and 7 children. She was active in her church guilds throughout her life, and loved to grow flowers, restore furniture, and sew beautiful clothing for her daughters. She was forever making home improvements, swinging a mean hammer, and could demolish a kitchen in less time than it took to eat breakfast. She enjoyed road trips and camped like a trooper when her kids were young.
She was an old school Democrat with a soft spot for all who struggle her entire life and was therefore elated that she lived long enough to see DJT voted off the island.
She loved dogs. They made her laugh. To the very end of her life.
She is buried with her beloved Ross at Tahoma National Veteran’s Cemetery and survived by her 7 children: Erin Maureen Wyatt, John Joseph Amo, Barbara Anne Schoenberg, Patrick Michael Amo, Cathleen Mary Sears, Annemarie Olson, and J.P. (Jerome Philip) Amo; as well as 11 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren.
