Herman, JoAnn

== Obituary: Jo Ann Herman / Fervent guardian of Carrick neighborhood June 18, 1934 - April 9, 2009 ==

Friday, April 17, 2009

By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Jo Ann Herman was a transplant to Pittsburgh, but few lifers bang the drum as loudly for their neighborhoods as she did for Carrick.

Founder of the 29th Ward Carrick Block Watch, Mrs. Herman died April 9 at UPMC Mercy. She was 74. Her husband, Joe, said she had suffered for two years with progressive emphysema.

"There's no one in Carrick who doesn't know Jo Ann," said her friend Phyllis Cardello. "I met her about 20 years ago when she worked part time at the Carrick laundromat. There was no one who loved Carrick and the people here like she did. Whatever she had to do for this community she would do. Carrick is going to miss her."

In an interview three years ago, Mrs. Herman, a native of Mooresville, N.C., said she fell in love with her husband's hometown after falling in love with him.

Joe Herman said he had met his future wife "when she was married to her first husband when I was in the service in Norfolk, Va." Twenty-five years later, he met her again in Chicago at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention.

They married about a year later, "then I brought her back here," he said.

Asked about her legacy in the neighborhood, he paused and said, "She did a lot."

Besides the block watch, Mrs. Herman was active on the Carrick Community Council and with the VFW. When she was raising children, she became a volunteer with the Girl Scouts and the Carrick High School band.

She said three years ago that Carrick was getting a trickle of new residents, most of them young, and that many children of the neighborhood find reasons to stay. Two of her daughters bought houses nearby and still live there.

"I love Carrick," she said in the interview, noting that her husband was born in the house they lived in. "We decided we should keep this house in the family."

The couple were avid police-scanner listeners, and Mrs. Herman was always up on the latest crime statistics. She started the block watch in 1983 after her street was rocked with a series of robberies. "I had heard about the 30th Ward Block Watch in Knoxville," she said.

The group visited the elderly who were unable to get out much, sold raffle tickets and baked goods to raise money and agitated city hall for more and better services. They brought in fire and police crews for home safety and health fairs, held bicycle rodeos to teach children bicycle safety and met to plan block-improvement strategies.

"Jo Ann retired [from the block watch] last year," Mrs. Cardello said. "We're going to try to reorganize it. That was her most prized thing. That was her baby. She would do so much of the work and put her own money in and then never take any credit. She said, 'It's not me, it's my people.'

"One thing she was known for was her awards dinners. It became a running joke that if anyone did anything for her, they got an award."

Under Mrs. Herman's leadership, the block watch won two awards from National Town Watch for the reach, scale and organization of its National Night Out activities, which have included a parade and square dances.

In addition to her husband, Mrs. Herman is survived by her children, Kelly Klem and Pamala Arthur, both of Carrick, and Ginny DeVine of St. Louis.

Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626.

First published on April 17, 2009 at 12:08 am