While in Douglas on Saturday we had a chance to extend sympathy personally to County Commission Chairman Jimmy Kitchens and other members of the Kitchens family upon the death of Mary Jo Kitchens Deas of Douglas.She was the daughter of the late Ed and Margaret Kitchens. Ed served as a city councilman in Douglas for many years. In addition to her brother, Jimmy Kitchens, Jo is survived by her husband, Wayne Deas, two daughters Deanna and Courtney and a son, Andrew. She has two sisters, Jean Kitchens Ellis of Douglas and Jann Barbieux of Leesburg, FL. I remember Jo as probably a teenager at the time crying and sharing the sad news with friends arriving at the Methodist Church that her uncle and my next door neighbor, Johnny Kitchens, had polio and was seriously ill in Santiago, Chile, where he served as a missionary for the church. Johnny died the following day, and his obit was one of the most difficult things I had to write at the Enterprise in Douglas in the late 50s.
