Joanna “Jo” Griset

Joanna “Jo” Griset died on September 27, 2016 after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. Jo was born in Los Angeles, May 4, 1931. Following a childhood that included Saturday matinees at the movie theater, delivering newspapers on her horse within the LA area, ushering at the Hollywood Bowl and playing music, like her parents before her, she attended UCLA and graduated in 1954.

While at UCLA she was a member of the Alpha Xi Delta Sorority, YMCA, Glee Club, Orchestra, and Sigma Alpha Iota (music society). Her love of music blossomed at school and she had the chance to meet and take classes from the music greats of her era including, Dr. Jan Popper and Arnold Schoenberg. Also while at UCLA, she met her future husband, Richard “Dick” Griset.

After UCLA, they lived in Sacramento and in 1963, they moved to Fallbrook, where she became an active member of the community, serving over the years as the president of the Fallbrook Hospital Auxiliary, a 4-H leader, high school band booster, Eastern Star Chapter #390 member, Mother Advisor for the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls, and exchange student host mother.

She and her family also ran the Flamingo Apartment Motel in Oceanside in the 60s and 70s. In more recent years, she was a member of the AAUW, California Retired Teachers Association, as well as volunteering at The Bottom Shelf, The Angel Shop and The Fallbrook Historical Society. Additionally, she and her family ran an avocado ranch and Heritage Square on Main Street in Fallbrook.

She spent the last 20 years of her teaching career at Vallecitos in Rainbow, where she taught kindergarten and first grade. She loved teaching these young children and when she would run into some of her previous students years later, she would always ask, “Can you read?” They would answer, “Yes," then she would say, “Well, I guess I did my job then,” always with a big smile on her face. She always loved hearing where life had taken her former students and what they were doing now.

She had a lifelong love of learning and enjoyed traveling. She traveled extensively to Europe, taking classes and visiting her children, and also enjoyed going to Asia and Latin America.

She found incredible enjoyment in her family and loved to spend time with them. She was preceded in death by her husband and is survived by her three children – Rick (Cheryl) Griset, John Griset, Joie (Jerry) Griset-Baran, and five grandchildren – Richard III, Joshua and Matthew Griset, and Danielle and Megan Baran.

She touched many lives and will be greatly missed. While no service will be held, the family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent in her name to the Fallbrook Historical Society, PO Box 1375, Fallbrook CA 92088.