By Mary Childress
Charleston Daily Mail staff
CHARLESTON
May 11, 2008 02:04 am
—
On this 100th anniversary of Mother’s Day, the title of the 2008 National Mother of the Year went to a Charleston woman.
Jo Lambert Blackwood, a 67-year-old mother of two and grandmother of six, was selected from thousands of applicants and a couple dozen finalists by American Mothers Inc., a non-profit organization for women.
Blackwood was honored after a meeting in February in Lincoln, Neb.
“I thought I would be the last one chosen,” she said of her win. “There were 22 other women there vying for the honor that were just as worthy of the honor as I was.”
It seems only fitting that a lady from the Mountain State earned top honors on this historic anniversary of the holiday.
The idea for Mother’s Day in the United States was conceived by a West Virginian, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, in the summer of 1865. Her daughter, Anna Jarvis, coordinated the first official celebration in Grafton on May 10, 1908.
Now, Mother’s Day is celebrated all over the world.
The first National Mother of the Year Award was handed out in 1935 to a Georgia woman and was presented by Sara Delano Roosevelt.
This year’s winner, Blackwood, who is director of teacher education at the University of Charleston, is a whirlwind of energy and enthusiasm.
She credits her own mother for showing her what it takes to make a family work.
Blackwood is married to E. Neale Blackwood Jr., also a professor at the University of Charleston, and is the mother of two sons: Andrew, 41, and Matthew Joseph, 38.
“My mother was the greatest role model to me,” Blackwood said. “She always put my needs and those of others first.”
She recalls her mom, a teacher at the old Tiskelwah Elementary School, making peanut butter sandwiches to take to poor students who never brought a lunch.
“She would also take clothes and food to the people who lived under the Patrick Street Bridge,” Blackwood said. “She always thought of others first.”
As a busy teacher and volunteer herself, Jo Blackwood has always found time for her children and now her six grandchildren.
She stayed home until her youngest son was in kindergarten, then returned to the classroom.
She graduated from Morris Harvey College with a bachelor’s degree in biology and a teaching certificate. She earned her master’s degree in journalism from Ohio University and much later, her doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Virginia Tech.
Blackwood immersed herself in student life at Morris Harvey. She was elected the second female president of the Student Government Association, wrote for the student newspaper and joined a science honorary fraternity and a social sorority.
She wound up back in school at the same time as her youngest son.
While working on her doctorate at Virginia Tech, she and Matt shared an apartment on campus.
“I remember coming in late one night and Matt waiting up for me,” Blackwood said. “He gave me an earful about coming home late and not letting him know where I was. I guess the roles were reversed for a minute or two.”
She has taught in the Monongalia County School system both as a teacher and yearbook adviser at Morgantown High School and at Charleston High School, where she taught English.
In 1985 Blackwood was named Kanawha County Teacher of the Year and was named West Virginia Language Arts Teacher of the Year in 1986. She served as curriculum planner for Capitol High School and became the first dean of humanities when the school opened in 1989.
She retired from the Kanawha County School system in 2000 and became the University of Charleston’s director of teacher education in January 2001.
Blackwood is currently association professor of education at UC and chairwoman of the critical thinking roundtable.
Her husband Neale is UC’s longest-serving full-time professor with 42 years of service teaching math and physics.
At one time, the entire Blackwood family was teaching on the UC campus.
Son Andy now is director of the National Youth Science Camp while Matt is homeland security coordinator for the West Virginia Department of Agriculture.
Raising two boys while working full-time was hard, but Blackwood said she knew she always had her husband’s help.
“Balancing my students’ needs, the household and the children, being a challenge at times, was difficult, but Neale and I shared the load,” she said. “When the song, ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’ came out, it instantly became the mantra of my husband’s role in my life.”
With every decision the family has made, the couple has always looked at the implications for the whole family.
“Fortunately, my boys were easy to raise,” Blackwood said. “And we always stayed active in their school and any outside activities in which they were involved.
“If they had Little League games, we were there to watch and cheer them on,” she said. “We made sure they were on time for music lessons or Boy Scout meetings and we never missed visiting their school and meeting with the teachers.”
Now, both she and Neale keep their summers free to enjoy their grandchildren, Catherine, Evan, Molly, Madelene, Ellen and Elliott. They range in age from 4 to 14 years old.
She and Neale have already planned an 11-day train trip from Charleston to San Francisco and back this summer with the three oldest grandchildren.
“Having the summer free lets us enjoy every minute we can with them,” she said. “We are available to take them to ball games, swim team practice or dance lessons and so on, just like we did with our sons. We provide the transportation in the summer and that helps our sons and daughters-in-law.
“We have always done things as a family, whether it was raising our children and now the grandchildren in church or participating in their outside activities,” Blackwood said. “We tried to put their needs before our own.”
When she does have time for herself, she’s up at the Charleston YMCA weightlifting, exercising and — a new hobby — kickboxing.
In addition to her other activities, just last semester she found time to volunteer with middle school students at Horace Mann Middle School helping them work on an Earth Day project.
She also takes two grandchildren each summer to Camp Peterkin in Romney, which is affiliated with the Episcopal Church. The family attends St. Johns Episcopal Church in Charleston.
She and her family have been active in the church for years, a requirement for the Mother of the Year award.
“When the boys were growing up it was not an option to skip church on Sunday,” she said.
She has taught Sunday School, been a member of the Vestry, served as lay minister, chalice assistant and vacation bible school teacher and has led confirmation classes at St. Johns.
This Mother’s Day, she and her family will be in church celebrating granddaughter Catherine’s confirmation, and then they’ll celebrate the holiday with a family lunch.
As Mother of the Year, Blackwood said she will be available to talk with groups in the area and around the country about the importance of motherhood.
“I believe mothers are the backbone of American society,” Blackwood said. “We all should work hard to strengthen that role in the family.
“I feel humbled and honored to have been chosen as Mother of the Year,” she said. “Being a mother is the best and hardest job in the country, whether you’re a stay-at-home mom or work full time.
“I didn’t need more to do at this stage of my life — this opportunity was not on my radar screen,” Blackwood said. “But it must have been on God’s radar screen.”
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