Our beloved poetic peace pilgrim, Jo Beall (born Joan Railey) died peacefully at home in Portland, Oregon on Martin Luther King Day, January 20, 2025.

Jo dedicated her life to peace, spirituality, listening, and the healing art of psychotherapy.  She was a mentor and compassionate friend to many.  She loved sharing her youthful joy, occasional mischievous side, bright willfulness, and calming presence with others.  Her enduring grace in the face of adversity is one of her most powerful lasting messages.

Jo was born on July 23, 1951 near the banks of the Blackwater River in Franklin, Virginia to Richard E. Railey, Sr. and Hazel B. Railey.  Always a free-spirit, she spent her childhood riding horses, engrossed in books, and swimming in the Atlantic Ocean.  She came of age in the segregated South, in a family with strong Quaker roots, and vividly remembered attending JFK’s inauguration.  These experiences instilled values of peace, social justice, and compassionate action that would be important through lines for her life’s work.

Jo earned degrees from the University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina, and the College of William & Mary where she studied religion, education, and counseling. Her passion for ideas and learning fueled her life.  She explored consciousness by immersing herself in Jungian psychology, studying the mystics, engaging in spirituality, and experiencing indigenous plant medicine.  An interest in Shamanic Studies led her on a vision quest in Canada and then to Sinte Gleska University on Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota.  She took courses and completed certificates on Andean medicine, quantum physics, numerology, astrology, Buddhism, and new biology.

During her early career, Jo worked in rural North Carolina and Virginia elementary schools with children facing special needs and poverty.  She then became a mother at 29 and devoted time to nurturing her daughter, Juliette, through early childhood.  Returning to the workforce, Jo dedicated herself to helping women and children in crisis by becoming a licensed counselor.  She worked in a women’s shelter and led a counseling program for rape survivors in Virginia before moving to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in 2000 to become an elementary school guidance counselor.

In 2008, Jo moved to Portland, Oregon to live close to her daughter.  She made many new friends while working on various political campaigns and for Rooms for Peace as well as volunteering with Portland Japanese Garden, Haiku Alive, and the Confluence Project.  She loved traveling to the Columbia Gorge to see the waterfalls, making pilgrimages to Hawaii, and going on annual whale watching adventures on the Oregon coast.

In her later years, Jo’s focus turned inward toward cultivating wisdom and dwelling in the heartspace of infinite love and gratitude.  She began a daily poetry writing practice and created the blog, Poetic Peace Pilgrimage.  She developed a virtual community around her that spread across the globe.  Then in 2020, she became a grandmother and shared her love, light, and wisdom with her grandson alongside patiently enduring hours of Curious George and Peppa Pig.

Jo was preceded in death by her parents and brother, Richard Railey, Jr.  She is survived by her daughter, Juliette (Geoff) Grummon-Beale, her grandson Chase Grummon-Beale, her sister Mimi Merrit, her brother John Railey, and her siblings’ families.

A Celebration of Life will be held in the Spring.  Donations in her memory may be made to the American Friends Service Committee, the Portland Japanese Garden, or the Confluence Project.  To plant a tree, please visit “A Tree to Remember.”  Arrangements are being made through Riverview Abbey.