Mary Joann Trippe

Mary Joann (England) Trippe was born October 7, 1936, to Ira and Emma (Brewster) England in Gadsden, Alabama. She left us on August 13, 2025. Joann (also known as Jody) was the 2nd of Ira and Emma’s three daughters. She was preceded in death by her husband of nearly 67 years, Arthur Terrence (A.T., Terry) Trippe, as well as her parents and her sisters, Melba England Krutchen and Janie England Sutherland. She was also preceded in death by her daughter-in-law Sharon Trippe, nephew Keith Houk, and long-time best friend Betty Daniels Pruett. When Joann was young, she was considered “sickly,” with bouts of respiratory illness so severe that one year she was given her Christmas gifts early because the family wasn’t sure she’d make it to December. Respiratory concerns aside, she loved to be outside, climbing trees, roller skating, playing with friends, and talking. She was always talking. Talking was her super-power. She graduated from Emma Sansom High School in 1954, the same year she was named “Valentine Queen.” In 2012, she and her long-time friend Dean Davis Plemons Bryant rode in the homecoming parade as honored alumnae. After high school, she joined two friends at a secretarial school in Birmingham, Alabama. Her first professional job was at GMAC, where she became friends with Shirley McDonald Sprouse. It was through Shirley that she met Terry, and that was the end of Terry and Joann’s single life. Joann spent the rest of her career at the steel plant in Gadsden. (At various times and under different ownership, the plant had such names as Republic Steel, Gulf States Steel, LTV, and Brenlin.) Joann and Terry were married on April 1, 1958, at Forrest Avenue Baptist Church. They welcomed their first child, Vanita Marie Trippe in 1959. Kyle Norman Trippe was born in 1963. Clark Randall Trippe was born in 1967. (Joann was obsessed with “Gone with the Wind,” so Clark’s name was a nod to Clark Gable as Rhett Butler.) Joann worked first shift at the steel plant (in shipping/receiving, along with friends Jean Benefield and the late Gloria Limbaugh, not in the swanky administrative office at the front of the plant). Terry worked third shift at Goodyear, from which he retired. Through the years their “Trippe-lets” were growing up, Joann and Terry also built several houses, some for themselves and others to sell to families in the Gadsden area. Joann was known for her love of socializing (read: talking), shopping, and dancing. She was a teetotaler, but she loved to go to supper clubs and other venues, where she and Terry danced and had fun with friends. They also spent many weekends on their boats on the Coosa River and other nearby waterways. RVing was another big pastime (more economical for a family of five.) Families who were frequent partners in crime included Jimmy and Gail Smith, Flo and Roy Smith, Larry and Shirley Starling, Gay and Gerald Watson, the Paynes, the Wards, the Sizemores, and the Schwartzes. Joann and Terry were loyal Alabamians (and University of Alabama fans). Nevertheless, before they retired, they began to build a second home on Choctawhatchee Bay in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. Over time, they spent more time at their Florida home than at their “real home” in Whorton’s Bend (Rainbow City, Alabama), but they steadfastly held onto their Alabama license plates, driver’s licenses, and voter registrations. Until Covid and their health prevented it, Joann and Terry attended all the 50+ year reunions for her alma mater and Terry’s (Hokes Bluff High School). Joann never met a stranger and would talk the ears off anyone who would listen. Despite her loyalty to the Southern Baptist Church, in Florida she became the closest of friends with her next-door neighbor Yvonne Payne (now deceased), and fell in with the women she called the “Catholic ladies,” whom she joined for various activities she loved to talk about. (Reminder: Joann loved to talk.) She was fearful of air travel, but did it a few times. The first was when she flew to Boston as part of a process-improvement team from the steel plant. The team had to make a public presentation, which scared her even more than flying. Next was a trip to Europe with Terry and other friends (including Ray Grigsby). She still didn’t like flying, but she would do it, so the kids sent Joann and Terry to Hawaii for their 50th anniversary. The “souvenir” she returned with was surprising to some: A small tattoo of an orange hibiscus on her ankle. She also flew to visit Yvonne’s family in Michigan. Her final flight was to Austin to visit family. Even though their return flights were booked, she shopped so much that she and Terry cancelled the tickets, and bought a truck to haul her “treasures” back to Florida. Joann had a beautiful singing voice (soprano) and sang in school, church, and on the radio in a trio of friends. She had an amazing ability to mishear lyrics to pop songs and sing them loudly. (As an example, the Bee Gees “More Than a Woman” became “Baldheaded Woman.”) She was noted for her fashion sense, her talkativeness, and friendliness. She was a beautiful woman, but she was also complicated, aggressive, and fiercely independent in some regards. Joann would not have called herself a feminist, but she sure believed in being paid the same as her male counterparts. She was known for filing grievances with the steelworkers’ union over issues around gender inequality. The union thought it had her number when its response to one grievance was, “OK, but you’ll have to wear steel-toed boots and a hardhat to go out in the plant.” To which she said, “Hide and watch.” She continued to rise in the wee hours each workday to make sure her hair, makeup, and attire were up to her fashion-forward personal standards. Then, she would drive to the plant, park in the back lot, walk to the security gate and “hitch a ride” with one of the truckers headed to shipping/receiving. A favorite Joann story came when she and Terry hosted a gathering in a new-to-them neighborhood. When some of their new younger neighbors saw graduation pictures on their wall and exclaimed, “You have a child who has graduated high school???!” Joann’s response (accurate, but misleading) was, “Oh, that’s Terry’s child!” (Joann NEVER gave her age, and all of her children are now decades older than she is, because Joann will always be “29.”) She loved her family endlessly. This included the ones who went before her and her living family (including cousins Rosemary Parker and Elaine Callejo), her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. Nothing could keep her from a birth, wedding, or other important event. She was a member of several churches over the course of her life, including Forrest Avenue Baptist, Bellevue Baptist, Meadowbrook Baptist, and Southside Baptist, all in the Gadsden area. She was most recently a member of The Church on the Bay in Santa Rosa Beach. Her children are Vanita Trippe (husband, Byron Meade) of Austin, Texas; Kyle Trippe (wife, Karen) of Rainbow City, Alabama; and Clark Trippe (late wife, Sharon) of Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. Her grandchildren are Kyla Trippe Hughes (Glencoe, Alabama), Chase Trippe (Glencoe, Alabama), Colleen Meade-Hayslip (Milton, Florida), Craig Meade (Gilbert Arizona), Jackson Meade (Austin, Texas), Ryan Sherrod (Gadsden, Alabama), and Nikki Sherrod (Glencoe, Alabama). Great-grandchildren are Adyson, Axel, Bo, Brantley, Brayden, Cayson, Katelyn, Landon, Layne, Leland, Lincoln, Noah, Tanner, Tuker, and Wyatt. In recent years, Joann was diagnosed with dementia. Terry was her primary caregiver until he suffered a stroke and they moved into an independent-living facility. Her condition progressed, and Terry passed away in early 2025. (View his obituary here: https://www.daviswatkins.com/obituary/ArthurTerry-Trippe?proxy=original) She spent her last weeks at Northside Rehab in Gadsden. The family deeply appreciates all the care given to her by Brookdale Destin, Northside Rehab, Emerald Coast Hospice, and Southern Care New Beacon Hospice. A celebration of life for Joann and a memorial service for Terry will be held on Saturday, August 23, 2025 at Williams Southside Funeral Home-Memorial Park, located at 1009 Hwy 77 Southside, Alabama 35907. Visitation will begin at 10:30 a.m. and the service at 11 a.m.

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Mary Joann Trippe

October 7, 1936 - August 13, 2025