JoRetha Jones Scouten passed away on May 1, 2025, in Kittery, Maine. Jo was born in Allegany County, Maryland, on October 1, 1943, to Alice Landacre Marshall Jones and Joseph W. Jones. She was the youngest of seven. The baby of the family, her siblings nicknamed her "Tootie", and that's how she was known to family and some close friends throughout her life.

Jo spent most of her career working at the Washington County Hospital (now Meritus Medical Center) in Washington County, Maryland, and graduated with her Associate's Degree from Hagerstown Community College. She retired with her husband, Rev. Wesley G. Scouten, to Fayetteville, Pennsylvania's Penn National Golf Community. She lived for a time at Atria Senior Living in Philadelphia, near her daughter Kelsey Bates and son-in-law Glenn Bates, before moving to Durgin Pines Nursing Home in Kittery, where she spent the last two years of her life close to her youngest daughter, Kendra Yang, son-in-law Steve Yang, and grandchildren, Judah and Karis Yang.

Jo was naturally athletic and enjoyed playing and watching sports. Her lifelong dream was to become a major league baseball player, and though she was decades (or more) before her time according to the rules of MLB, she was infamous in Midland, Maryland, as the girl who could beat anyone in the neighborhood at baseball. She continued to play softball, tennis, and golf throughout her life.

She was preceded in death by Wes, her beloved husband of 37 years. Wes often joked that he proposed to Jo after a particularly unlucky game of golf (for him), choosing to lose to her forever rather than to win against anyone else. In their married life, Jo was a partner to Wes, an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church. They worked side-by-side in parishes including Cape Saint Claire United Methodist Church in Annapolis, Maryland, and St. Matthew's United Methodist Church in Hagerstown, Maryland. It was a partnership that Jo embraced and a job at which she excelled. Jo was known for having a terrific sense of humor, an unusually generous spirit, and an empathy for all living things.

Jo was also known as a singer, her beautiful alto voice harmonized with her sisters in the group "The Jones Sisters" as a young woman and then later in the choirs of all the parishes of which she and Wes were a part. She and her musically inclined sisters, Jeanette Armstrong and Elma Layman, never let a family reunion go by without playing music and singing together the songs of their youth. Their families will always cherish their joyful musical performances.

Jo was particularly proud to be a grandmother ("Mimi") to twins Judah and Karis Yang, and she was a strong presence and caregiver in their early lives. She was grateful to live so close to them at the end of her life.

Jo was preceded in death by her siblings Jeanette Armstrong, Betty Faye Lannon, Neil Jones, and Marshall "Butch" Jones. In addition to her daughters and grandchildren, Jo is survived by two sisters, Elma Layman of Frostburg, Maryland, and Brenda Kooken of Crownsville, Maryland, along with numerous nieces and nephews.

A celebration of Jo's life will be held on July 26, 2025 at 11:00 am in the chapel at Restlawn Memorial Gardens in Cumberland, Maryland. In lieu of flowers, Jo would have loved a donation made in her name to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) or the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). 

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