Josie was born on March 28, 1930 in Manhattan, to Patrick & Margaret O’Callaghan. Her parents met in New York as immigrants from the Republic of Ireland, her father from County Monaghan and her mother from County Cavan. Josie grew up in the College Point section of Queens and in the Bronx. She graduated from Hunter College in 1951 with a degree in English Literature.
Upon her marriage in September of 1952, she moved to Philadelphia, PA, home to her husband, John Dennis Clark. Her first child was born in 1953 and her sixth in 1965. Josie was always fiercely protective of her children and of her siblings. Her practical jokes were notorious and her generous Christmas gifts legendary. She delighted in the surprising.
Josie completed her Masters in Library Science at Drexel in 1970 and took a position at Abington Friends School as the Upper School Librarian in the fall of 1971. She was a woman with a great sense of humor and respect for young minds and hearts willing to learn. She laughed with and shushed students in equal measure. Her often heard refrain in the library was “qui-ET!” The class of 1974 dedicated the yearbook to her.
Josie enjoyed travel, theater, gardening, cooking, the company of friends and always, always a good book to read. In a busy and active life, Josie’s greatest pleasures were contemplative: reading and beachcombing, first with one generation, then the next. From her, we inherit a love of the beauty of human conversation and in equal measure a love for the glorious variety of this world.
Among those who remember her with love are her children and their spouses: Conna and Eduardo, Brendan and Lynda, Patrick and Lizanne, Ciaran and Suzanne, and Brian and Kate; her grandchildren, Brianna, Jessica, Owen, Cassidy, Ben, Casey, Julia, Brigid, Ana and Joseline, and her first great-grandchild, Ada. She is loved as well by her sisters and their spouses: Patricia and Mort Friedman of Rancho Bernardo, CA; Joan and Bill Flaherty of Williamsburg, VA; and her brother and his wife, Sean and Anne O’Callaghan of Ardmore, as well as many nieces and nephews. She was pre-deceased by her husband Dennis and her youngest child, Brigid.
There will be a celebration of her life on October 3, 2015, at Chestnut Hill College, the Chateau at SugarLoaf, 9220 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA, from 1 to 4 p.m.