Josephine L. Wilcock, 86, of Urbana died at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 8, 2010, at Meadowbrook Health Center, Urbana. Known to all as Jo, she was born March 22, 1924 in Newark NJ, the fourth of five children to Matthew Walukonis and Josephine Walukonis (Muliolis), first-generation immigrants from Lithuania. She graduated as salutatorian from East Side High School in Newark and received an AA degree in business management at Essex Junior College (now a branch of Rutgers University). She received a BA in Economics and Business Management from the University of Illinois in 1951. Jo joined the war effort in 1943 as a management assistant for Chance Vought Aircraft Company in Bridgeport Connecticut. She enlisted in the US Navy WAVES in 1944, serving as an Instrument Flying Instructor (Link Trainer) until August 1945. It was in Bridgeport that she met her future husband Richard Carrington Wilcock. They were married May 12, 1945 in Norwalk CT and came to Urbana in 1948 when Dick joined the faculty of the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations. Four of their five children were born in Urbana. Dick and Jo were active in the Democratic Party and with the Urbana School Board. Dick died unexpectedly in 1963. After five more years of full-time parenting, Jo became Assistant to the Head of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Illinois in 1969, serving in that position until her retirement in 1987. A great interest in her life was travel, beginning with a year in Bologna, Italy in 1957 and followed by travel to Eastern and Western Europe and Africa. In 1966, she put her five children in an old Mercedes and drove from Urbana to Mexico City and Acapulco. After nearly a half-century on Michigan Avenue in Urbana, Jo moved to Clark-Lindsey Village in 2002, joining many colleagues and friends. Her last years were spent with her beloved WILL radio and TV, New York Times, and Saturday broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, monitoring the rascals in Springfield and Washington, and inspiring her grandchildren to make a difference. Josephine was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Joseph Walukonis, and her sisters Anne Walukonis and Vera McGinty. She is survived by her brother, John Walukonis of Rockaway, NJ, by her five children, David Carrington Wilcock of Corea, ME, Deborah Jo Wilcock of Sun City West, AZ, Peter Richard Wilcock of Baltimore MD, Christopher Robin Wilcock of Urbana, and Nina Marie Johnson of Chesapeake, VA, by daughters-in-law Karen Eskildsen Wilcock, Barbara Ashley Goldhor-Wilcock, and Louann Blackwood Wilcock, by sons-in-law David Pepitone and Kenric Johnson, and by nine grandchildren, Daniel Wilcock, Andrew Wilcock, Zachary Wilcock, Jacob Wilcock, Benjamin Wilcock, Lily Wilcock, Thomas Wilcock, Matthew Johnson, and Michael Johnson. Memorial gifts may be made to the Champaign County Democratic Party (P.O. Box 1455, Champaign, IL 61824). A celebration of Jo Wilcock's life will be held at Clark-Lindsey Village, 101 W. Windsor Rd., Urbana, at 2pm, June 19, 2010. All are invited.