March 26, 2021
Jo Wintker was born
Joan Jeter on June 7, 1933 in Jackson, TN. She grew up on a hard-working farm,
picking strawberries and chopping cotton from the time she was old enough to
walk. With a lifelong interest in the arts, she studied acting and theater arts
at Memphis State University. After graduation, she pursued an acting career
first in New York and later Los Angeles. She considered acting a God-given
talent, a gift that she was meant to share with the world. She was happiest
when she knew she had made someone laugh. By the mid-sixties, however, she had
a growing feeling of wanting to do some sort of work with children. She
followed that feeling back home to Tennessee, where she achieved a master’s
degree in counseling and began what would become a decades-long career in
social work.
While serving as executive director of Outlook Nashville, she met Ray Wintker,
Junior of Memphis, TN. Then a “long-haired hippy” and Vietnam veteran working
to become a psychologist, their shared passion for service-oriented work, along
with their natural chemistry, overcame their age difference and resulted in two
daughters and a joyous 29-year marriage. Retired at 63 and widowed a year
later, Jo found her way back to her original love, acting. She performed in
several plays in Murfreesboro, TN and eventually landed a few small roles in
movies. By that time, she was living with her eldest daughter and son-in-law in
Nashville, where she joined St. Phillip’s Episcopal Church in Donelson and
became active in Children’s Church. Jo loved teaching and nurturing children,
particularly the ones she called “pistols”— independent, willful children who
questioned authority and weren’t afraid to go their own way. In her final year
of life, as the pandemic curtailed her activities and kept her from most of the
people she loved, Jo maintained her positivity by working in her yard, tending
her pansies, painting when the spirit moved her, and watching her “grand-cat”
go for walks with her daughter. At the time of her death, both of her
daughters, the son-in-law she loved like her own, and a total of three
“grand-cats” were sharing her home with her, filling her life and her heart
with as much silliness and love as they could.
Jo is survived by her daughters, Sally and Abby; her son-in-law, Terry; her
brother, Bruce; her cousin, Gloria; several beautiful, dedicated friends; and
countless surrogate grandchildren from her decades of volunteer work at St.
Paul’s Episcopal Church in Murfreesboro and St. Phillip’s in Nashville.
Jennings and Ayers Funeral Home and Cremation, 820 S. Church Street,
Murfreesboro, TN 37130. 615-893-2422 Please leave online condolences at www.jenningsandayers.com
HELTON, Jo (Joan Jeter)
Born: 6/7/1933, Jackson, Tennessee, U.S.A.
Died: 3/26/2021, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, U.S.A.
Joan Helton’s westerns – actress:
North to Alaska – 1960 (dance hall girl)
Gunsmoke (TV) – 1963 (Wendy)
Extradition – 2014 (Ava Brigance)
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