Jo Duff

Jo Ann, 84, of Waco passed away Sunday, October 13, 2013 at her home surrounded by her family. Graveside services will be at 11 a.m. Thursday, October 17, 2013 at Oakwood Cemetery with Rev. Doug Blackford of the Cogdell Methodist Church officiating. Visitation will be 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 16, at OakCrest Funeral Home, 4520 Bosque Boulevard.

Jo Ann was born November 20, 1928 in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Jo Ann and Duff met while he was working in the oilfields of the Texas Panhandle. He worked with her brother, Jim, who introduced them. The couple married in February 1946 and to their family and friends became a symbol of a working, loving marriage. They were inseparable for nearly 60 years.

In 1963 the Duff family moved from Greenville, Texas where he was the City Engineer to join the Garland Engineering company in Waco. At that time, he brought his closest friend, Bill Aston, P.E. to work along side him. Later, Duff bought the company to form King and Duff Engineers and in 1967, he and Jo Ann formed Duff Consulting Engineers, Inc. They worked together as co-owners until Duff’s death when Jo Ann became sole owner and President. A few months before her passing, her daughters Anna Duff Adamek, P.E. and Julia Duff Bettinger who had been trained and groomed by the parents they loved, became the new owners of the family business.

Jo Ann was a self-taught business woman. She had a natural talent for managing the business and using her excellent “people skills” to help build the company’s large client base.

She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who cherished her daughters and set an example of a strong, dependable woman proud of her Native American heritage. She adored and appreciated her sons-in-law, David Bettinger and Rodney Adamek, who both were and continue to be an essential part of the business.

Our family and its unique ability of wives and husbands to work together in a close-knit, professional and amiable environment is a rare achievement to most outsiders and is credited to Jo Ann and Duff’s example.

Gardening was Jo Ann’s favorite past time, but her first love was the “slots” at casinos. Throughout the last 10 to 15 years of their life together, Jo Ann and Duff made relaxing trips to Louisiana in their motor home where they would visit with friends and enjoy the amenities of being VIPs. Her uncanny luck at winning jackpots was a legend with family and friends. She was quite a sight to behold in her gambling realm, glowing with happiness and calm delight as she smiled at her daughter Julia and the machine would chime out a jackpot.

She was preceded in death by her husband James “Duff” C. Duff who passed in January of 2007; brother, Jim Brumback; and sisters, Lib Rickles and Betty James.

Survivors are her daughters , Anna Jo Duff Adamek, P.E. and Julia Duff Bettinger; sons-in-law, Rodney Adamek and David Bettinger; grandchildren, Christopher Duff Adamek, Rachel Bettinger Cooney, Lauren Duff Adamek Baker and Sara Bettinger Gunter; great-grandchildren, Katy Gunter, Anabelle Cooney, Abigail Cooney, Ethan Adamek and Will Baker; brother, Ralph Brumback; sisters, Marlene Ridley and Barbara Lewis; and numerous nieces and nephews.