This site is for sharing memories of Joanne Scott Zeoli, who was always known as Jody. She was born in Denver in 1931, Ruth Joanne Scott. Her parents were Charles Herald Scott and Mildred Tomlin Scott. Her older sisters were Pauline and June. She had an older brother, Donald, and a younger brother Charles.
From a young age, Jody was a voracious reader, a love she carried all her life. Her family moved to the east coast and eventually to Westport, Connecticut, where she graduated from Staples High School, as did her husband, three children and three grandchildren. Jody met
Nick Zeoli in the early 1950s, they married and had three children, Stephen, Christopher and Nikki.
In 1964, Nick and Jody packed their children into a Rambler station wagon and spent the summer driving 10,000 miles around the United States visiting National Parks including the Badlands, Yellowstone, Crater Lake, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, and more. In the 1980s and 1990s, the two travelled to Europe several times.
After a visit with friends with a vacation home on a lake in Wisconsin, Nick and Jody decided to look for their own summer get away place, a quest that resulted in buying a small lot on Beebe Pond in Vermont. For the next 60-plus years, the lake would be a special place for Jody, Nick and the family. Some of Jody's best friends were neighbors on the lake. When the weather and lake water warmed enough, she and some of the women from the lake would swim across and back. They called this group The Turtles.
In addition to raising a family, Jody had a career as a legal secretary. She loved classical music and opera.
Jody continually tested herself, tackling the New York Times crossword every day. And she never missed an installment of Jeopardy. The fact that she dropped out of college always bothered her, so she enrolled at the University of Connecticut in the late 1980s and earned her bachelor's degree when she was 60.
She and Nick retired to a log home they built on the shores of Beebe Pond in the mid 1990s, where she continued to reside the remainder of her life.
When dad's mental state deteriorated in the last four years or so of his life, mom insisted on being his main care giver. Despite how difficult he became, she stayed resolute in her resistance to moving him to assisted living.
Jody is survived by her three children, and by her grandchildren Jenny, Charlotte and Nicholas Porzio.
If you would like to make a donation in Jody's honor, we suggest:
