At 97 years old, Florence “Jo†Anderson was tapping away in dance classes with her daughter. At 92 years old, she was jumping out of an airplane to check off a bucket list item. And at the age of 67, she graduated from the practical nursing program at Southeast Community College.Ìý
If you ask Lori Anderson about her mom, she could tell you endless stories about Jo dancing the night away at a Paul McCartney concert in her 90s, her unmistakable Southern accent, and her subtle, yet amusing, humor.
Although Jo died on July 31, 2021, these stories are far from being forgotten — Lori is making sure of that.
“I want somebody to go, ‘Wow, what a lady,’ because nobody will believe it. You don’t believe it until you can read her story,†Lori said.
Lori believes she has found the perfect way to honor her mom along with some of Jo’s favorites — dance, the field of medicine and a continuation of learningÌý— at a spot that gave Jo all three, Southeast Community College in Lincoln.
Michelle Birkel, executive director for SCC's education foundation, gave Lori several options to honor Jo. Eventually, the two landed on the idea to name a floor after Jo at the Lincoln Campus Health Science building, which opened in 2021.
“It’s so important to have a means for people to be able to memorialize and to have gifts in memory, whether it’s scholarships or naming opportunities,†Birkel said. “It’s just so satisfying, and they’ll always have that forever. That’s nothing that could be taken from them.â€
In addition to the $250,000 for naming rights, Lori donated $20,000 toward equipment for the health sciences department and to establish an endowed scholarship fund.
The Florence C. Anderson (Jo) Physical Therapy & Nursing Scholarship will help students who may “fall through the cracks†and don’t qualify for other scholarships.
“We need them to go because they’re the ones who might be the best nurses,†Lori said.
After working on the naming rights this summer, the idea was approved on Aug. 27 by the SCCÌýBoard of Governors.
It was a monumental moment for Lori who wanted some way to honor her mom.
“My dad was a hero, and I felt like my mom didn’t get the credit that she deserved,†Lori said. “I just thought, I need her name out there. People need to know how amazing she is, they have to know.â€
Anyone who knew Jo recognized her Southern accent, a mark of being born and raised in Sumter, South Carolina.
“She was very Southern Belle, to the hilt. Loved being from South Carolina,†Lori said.
Growing up, Jo's passions revolved around swimming, dancing and her medical studies. She attended several universities where she studied nursing before earning her degree in physical therapy at the University of Virginia in Richmond.
Post-graduation, Lori said Jo decided to sign up as a physical therapist for the US Army, despite it being a fairly new field at the time.
As an Army lieutenant, Jo went to Minnesota to help children during the polio epidemic. When she arrived, she introduced herself as “Flo†— one of her nicknames from South Carolina — but was mistakenly heard as “Jo,†which stuck as her nickname.
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It wasn’t long before she met her future husband, Ferd Anderson, at Fort Bragg, now known as Fort Liberty in North Carolina, in 1949. Ferd had graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1946. The love birds were married on Aug. 4, 1950, and within a couple weeks, Ferd was sent to serve in Korea.
Throughout their marriage, Jo and Ferd had seven children and five foster children. The couple traveled extensively for the military, living in Japan, France, Germany and more, before settling in Lincoln in 1976.
Their community involvement flourished as Ferd retired and volunteered with the Boy Scouts and Jo found her passion in prison ministry and local nonprofits.
Despite their busy family life, Jo’s dream of becoming a nurse lingered.
“She never really lost that idea of having wanted to be a nurse,†Lori said. “I think she kind of lamented, because once she got married, she quit working.â€
So at age 65, Jo enrolled at SCC and became a licensed nurse, working for years in nursing homes around Lincoln, often caring for those younger than herself.
And she continued to foster her love for dance, joining the Shim Sham Senior Tap Troupe at Hart Dance Academy.
“She loved to dance,†Lori said. “She was always the oldest one.â€
The troupe performed in flash mobs, halftime performances and biannual dance recitals. Although the last time Jo danced with the Shim Shams was at her 90th birthday party, she was far from quitting dance. According to Lori, Jo just didn’t like waking up at 8 a.m. to practice anymore.
After Ferd died, Jo and Lori took tap dancing classes at SCC when Jo was around 93 years old.
“I was terrible,†Lori said, recalling classes with her mom. “She was amazing, she knew it.Ìý
“She was this delicate little lady, perfect posture, was tap dancing until the day she fell in 2021 when she was 97,†Lori said.
She was a fast little lady too. She wouldn’t walk, Lori said she would flit down the hallways on her tiptoes.
All of Jo’s siblings lived well into their 90s, but Lori said none of them were quite as healthy as Jo was. She died two weeks before her 98th birthday.
Even throughout her later years in life, Lori said her mom continued to volunteer, help watch children and gain as much knowledge as she could, such as taking piano and acting lessons at SCC.
“She always wanted to learn,†Lori said. “Just learn, learn, learn.â€
Lori believes it was important to Jo to take all of the opportunities to learn because she never got the chance as a kid. While Jo's older sisters had extracurricular activities, a younger brother ended up with osteomyelitis in his hip which never healed. The family’s money went toward his hospital visits while Jo grew up in hand-me-downs as the youngest sibling.
“I think that had an impact on her, because her sisters were different than that,†Lori said.
By donating to SCC, Lori hopes to help provide opportunities for more students to continue their education like Jo, no matter what stage of life they are in. Plus, by having her picture up on the wall, perhaps more people will get to learn about the woman who lived life to her fullest.
“She was so elegant, she looked like a movie star,†Lori said. “She kept herself so fit, she exercised until the day she died. Leg lifts, dancing, all of it.â€