Coping with Grief
We would like to offer our sincere support to anyone coping with grief. Enter your email below for our complimentary daily grief messages. Messages run for up to one year and you can stop at any time. Your email will not be used for any other purpose.
Josephine Lavinia Dove-Jones was born in Boston to Ismay Collymore-Dove (owner of Ismay's Beauty shop) and Elijah Dove on February 13, 1939. She leaves behind her Loving Daughter, Kim Kay Smoot-King (Jones); Son-in-law, Danny King;
Grandson, Leslie (Poopie) Osborne; Aunt, Verlo Reed; Sister, Valerie Chambers; Great Grandchildren: Navaeh, Leslie III, Niyini, Lucky, Nasario and Annissa as well as many cousins, nieces, nephews and friends.
Josie grew up on North Hampton St. where she spent most of her time with her many cousins which included Alice and Rufus McNeil (both deceased); Bernice and
Herbert (Bunkey) Small (both deceased) and Marie (Poocum) Martin (also deceased) Aba-Khufu (Bobby) Al-Mahdi; Fred (Freddy) and Marie (Girl Mickey) Seymour and friends Ormond (Junie) James; Ivan and Grace James (both deceased) and Marlene Stevens (also deceased).
As a child, Josie was very pretty, quiet, soft spoken and possessed a keen sense of fairness. As such she was an independent thinker who was not easily swayed to go along with the populous. She attended the Hyde School and later the Jeremiah E. Burke High School where she made history as the school's 1st Black Prom Queen. This was the beginning of the many Beauty Queen crowns and titles she would win.
During her high school years, Josie worked in Carl and Eddies Meat Market on Blue Hill Ave. where the owner, Carl, mentored her in Hebrew and how to select the best cuts of meat. Upon graduation, Josie went to work for the Prudential Insurance Co. but was not there long because she felt the need to help others. She satisfied that passion in the Boston Public School System where she worked with Special Needs Children. First at the David A. Ellis and many years later retiring from the William H.Ohrenberger. Josie loved and cherished the Special Needs Scholars she worked with so much, she became the Foster Parent to two brothers (one severely handicapped) to keep them together until they were adopted.
Like her mother, Ismay, Josie was a very giving person. If she had $2.00 and you were broke, instead of giving you $1.00 she would give you the $2.00 and go without followed by "God is good” and “They needed it more." If she went shopping for herself, she always bought more than she needed to give to someone she thought might also be in need. When she cooked, which was every day, she often cooked enough for a soup kitchen to share with the multiples in her building.
A hybrid of a gregarious sort, Josie had a third eye and a gift for listening intently to others before rendering any opinion but was a very private person when it came to sharing her innermost thoughts and feelings.
TO JOSIE, HER FAMILY AND FRIENDS SAY “SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE!”
To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Josephine Louvenia (Dove) Dove-Jones, please visit our floral store.