Mrs. Todd was not a full time teacher at Westchester as orchestra/string teachers were usually at 2 schools. She also taught at Memorial Jr. High. She started me on violin there and I had her for all 3 years!! Then all students went to Memorial Sr. High for 2 years before Westchester was built so I had a different orchestra teacher for 2 years before being her student again!
Ann Scheppke McNally WHS 1969
Jo LeRue Black Todd, 68, passed away Thursday, June 25, 2009.
Funeral: 10 a.m. Tuesday at First United Methodist Church of Arlington. Interment: Private. Visitation: 6 to 8 p.m. Monday at Greenwood Funeral Home.
Jo was born Oct. 10, 1940, to Ruth V. Logan and Thomas Leroy Black Jr. of Fort Worth.
Jo began studying violin and playing with school orchestral groups in elementary grades. She graduated from Texas Christian University with a degree in music education in 1962. She was concert mistress with the TCU Symphony Orchestra and violinist with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
After college, Jo taught orchestra in the Spring Branch ISD in Houston and was director of the Spring Branch All-Region Orchestra. She married Gary O. Todd July 1969 in Fort Worth and had two daughters. In 1985, she resumed her teaching career in the Arlington ISD as director of orchestras at Shackelford Junior High School and Hutcheson Junior High School, and conducted the string orchestra of the Junior Youth Orchestra of Greater Fort Worth.
Jo LeRue was a finalist in 2000 for "Outstanding AISD Teacher of the Year." Her Shackelford orchestra performed a concert for the prestigious Midwest Clinic in Chicago in 2002. Jo became director of Lamar High School Concert Orchestra in 2004. She was assistant director of Lamar High School Symphony when the group was named "Honor Orchestra" by the State of Texas Orchestra Directors Association. She retired from AISD in 2005. In 2007, she began teaching orchestral studies at TCU.
Jo was a former president of Cecilian Club (of Fort Worth Junior Woman's Club), Interbrook Woman's Club of Arlington, The Arts Organization of Fort Worth and Ridglea Hills PTA.
She was a member of Mu Phi Epsilon sorority at TCU; Texas Orchestra Directors Association and its honor fraternity, Mu Omicron; Texas Music Educators Association; TCU Fine Arts Guild; Fort Worth Woman's Club; and Whitlock Club.
Survivors: Husband, Gary O. Todd; daughters, Meredith Todd Denzler and husband, Steven, of Los Angeles; Johanna Todd Keen and husband, Jason, of Westlake; grandchildren, Kathryn Anne Keen, Evan Todd Denzler and Karringtyn Ruth Keen.
Published by Star-Telegram on Jun. 28, 2009.
BIRTH
Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas, USA
DEATH
25 Jun 2009 (aged 68) Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas, USA
BURIAL
Greenwood Memorial Park and Mausoleum Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
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