Josephine “Jo” Ruffalo Bell (née Barone)

___________

Josephine Bell, age 89 years, of Morris Plains, NJ, died on Thursday, October 22, 2020 at her home. The following obituary was written with love by her daughter:

Our dear Josephine has graduated from this Earth school and gone with the angels, Josephine was born on her Aunt Ernestine’s birthday in Paterson New Jersey she was an Italian American of Calabrese ( maternal ) and Sicilian (paternal) descent. In her early years she and many family members lived in a house built by her grandfather Antonio Ruffalo. They tended a fruit orchard and had a root cellar and she loved to help Aunt Ernie bake.

Growing up in “the Great Depression” had instilled many values and frugality in her. Josephine’s delights in life included classical music, museums, delicate details of art paintings, being invited to things, living within her means, children dolls, little trinkets, health foods, and herbs, social interactions, festivals, sleeping, her family, pretty, flowers, stones, rocks and gems, handmade laces, shopping around town, her family, wildlife, misty water falls in the woods, pets of all kinds, science, the scent of ripe fruits, gossip “through the grapevine” and provoking a good debate, she had a childlike innocence but also a realistic view of the world, she was very concerned about doing all she could to help our environment, she was an intellectual and was studious and fastidious and very much enjoyed being a student and never wanted to stop learning.

Ever the truth seeker she liked to ponder the mysteries of the world and the universe. She enjoyed having intellectual discussions and had an excellent vocabulary, I don’t think I want to put that she had a strong faith in God, because I don’t think she did, I think she just really enjoyed learning everything she could about all of the spiritual and religious stuff, I’m going to say she was very spiritual cuz I don’t think she cared specifically about which god.

Her formal education includes public schools, Immaculate Conception in Montclair, Uppsala College and Farleigh Dickinson University where she earned her BA.  Her work experience included farmwork, luncheonette counter girl, telephone switchboard operator and laboratory worker at Bell Labs where she took pride in assembling a “heath kit” radio with instructions from her colleagues.

She has a brother, James who resides in Arizona. She married a widower George Henry Bell (deceased) who had two children, Gary and Donna and then they had two daughters together, Sharon and Linda. After the marriage she was a homemaker. They divorced after a few years but they stayed friends and kept in touch.

She was a grandmother to Charlene, Danielle and Wendy, also a great grandmother to Anthony “AJ” who was born into spirit, and to Olivia and Jeffrey she was an in-law, relative and friend to many more, she loved her family. She was not a risk taker and did not drive but she had a few driving lessons in the sixties from her former husband in his white VW Beetle and that was enough driving for her. In her later years she was feeling the effects of her older age butpreferred living alone in Morristown, New Jersey and called her home her sanctuary.

_______________

Graveside life celebration services and natural “green” burial will take place on Sunday, November 1, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. at Moravian High Acres Cemetery, #447 and Dutch Hill Road, Canadensis, PA 18325, under the care and direction of Wright & Ford Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services, 38 State Highway 31, Flemington, NJ.

Please visit Josephine’s permanent life celebration site at www.wrightfamily.com to light a candle of hope, leave messages of condolence, share words of comfort and recollection, and post photographs of her life.

_____________________________

Wright & Ford, your local, family owned & operated “Life Celebration Home”