Josephine Anne Collette Herrmann

Josephine Anne Collette Herrmann (née Galka), passed away on All Souls Day, November 2, 2021, at home, surrounded by friends, family and holy angels, in Duval County, Florida.

Born June 06, 1939 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she was the daughter of the late Stella Amelia Galka (née Klos) and Frank Rudolph Galka.

One of six children, Josephine, who went by the name Joanne and sometimes Billie, is survived by her three sisters Sharon, Quinn and Jackie, as well as her sisters-in-law Janice, Helen and Cheryl; her brother Frank; and by the loving memory of her late brother Larry.

Joanne was the beloved, cherished and adored wife of the late Augustus Louis Herrmann; mother to Laura-Marie Herrmann, Gregory Michael Herrmann and his wife Elizabeth, and Valerie Ann Herrmann-Justice and her husband Don; and gentle grandmother to Ella Mae Herrmann, Oliver Augustus Herrmann, and Kalel Jhett Justice. She was also proud aunt to her nieces Renee, Tiffany, Brooksley, Katrina, April and Konstantina, and her nephews Frank, Bronko, and Frank Ross Jr., whom she loved dearly.

Joanne raised her family in Florida but launched her career as a writer, educator and theologian in Chicago where she met her husband while teaching at the Carmel High School for Girls after graduating in 1966 with her Masters in Theology from Marquette University. Coupled with her background in English literature and a second MA from the University of North Florida in 1994, Joanne would go on to teach at St. John’s School, Bishop Kinney, Florida Community College of Jacksonville and Douglas Anderson School of the Arts where she established the school’s first newspaper and taught another of her great passions, journalism.

She is survived not only by her children and grandchildren, but by the legacy of her work which includes The Lost Loved Ones , a work of historical fiction; a sourcebook titled Discovering Values Through Literature: The Beatitudes ; and Sacred Love in Religious Personality : a meditation on the role of Grace in the structure of personality and the actuation of salvation which was her Masters thesis at Marquette. She is also the author of numerous poems, short stories, newspaper articles and political commentary, some of which were featured in the column she wrote from 2004-5 for the Florida Times Union , “An Alternative Voice.” She taught at University of Hawai’i Maui Community College in 2010.

A happy member of the Catholic Writer’s Guild and CHRP, Christ Renews His Parish, representatives from both prayed the Joyful Mysteries over her on November 1st and were present on the eve of her transfiguration and reunion with Christ on All Souls Day.

A private memorial service will be held for Joanne at St. Paul’s Catholic Church at 10am on December 11th, to be followed by a reception in the Hall. Please contact the parish for details at (904) 387 2554.