Emily Jo Allen Colvin, 91, of Huntsville, AL, passed away from natural causes on November 7, 2024, in Huntsville, AL. Laughlin Service Funeral Home will announce arrangements for a memorial service. Emily Jo will be interred at Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville.
Emily Jo was born in Huntsville, AL, to Emily Dorcas Sanderson Allen and Joseph Benjamin Allen on April 5, 1933. She attended Huntsville High School and graduated in 1951. Emily Jo pursued higher education at Howard College in Birmingham, AL, and was a member of A Capella Choir. She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education from Howard College in 1955. During her college years, Emily Jo worked in the document library at Redstone Arsenal and recalled seeing Wernher von Braun’s name on the sign-out sheet; Emily Jo often said she was disappointed that she never got to meet von Braun. Emily Jo was a teacher upon her graduation from Howard College, instructing pupils in all age groups, and retiring in 1982 as a longtime 1st- and 2nd-grade teacher from Hillside Elementary in Berwyn, PA.
Emily Jo enjoyed hosting luncheons and dinner parties, leading women’s Bible studies for her neighbors and friends, singing in her church choir and for memorial services, China painting with two Huntsville groups, and participating in philanthropic activities. She was a gracious Christian woman who taught by example throughout her life. Emily Jo’s children recall how she made meals or desserts for ailing friends despite her busy schedule as a teacher. Her gift of hospitality continued into her 80s, often making her trademark coconut cake or pound cake for friends who were sick or to comfort those who had lost loved ones. Emily Jo held onto tradition, making her fruitcake annually into her 80s, teaching a new generation to love the much-maligned confection.
In their 30 years of marriage, Emily Jo and her husband, H.C. “Woody” Colvin, traveled worldwide to serve on mission trips, giving out Bibles in Russia, where she and Woody met longtime friend Olga Baicheva; to Ghana, Africa, where Woody and Emily Jo served for two months assisting the resident missionaries; and within the United States at Bible camps and their home churches.
Emily Jo grew up attending First Baptist Church Huntsville as a youngster and again when she and Woody retired to Huntsville in 2000, after living in North Carolina and Texas. Emily Jo sang in First Baptist Church Huntsville’s Hallelujah Choir, was a member of the National Federation of Music Clubs and was honored by the organization in 2004 for 50 or more years of service in church music. Emily Jo was inducted into the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1992, and had membership in the Huntsville Porcelain Arts Guild, the World Organization of China Painters, and the Philanthropic Educational Organization (P.E.O.) in the Texas Chapter GT and the Alabama Chapter M.
Emily Jo is survived by her son, Walter Allen Kelley of Huntsville, AL; daughter, Emily Kelley Morris, and son-in-law, Christopher Richard Morris, of Taylor Lake Village, TX; son, J. Kim Colvin, and his wife, Susan, of Florida; daughter, Pam Colvin, of Texas; five grandchildren, Walter Morris and Abby Morris, of Texas, Kacey Colvin and Sydney Colvin, of Florida, and Tracy Green of Colorado; two great-grandchildren; dozens of nephews and nieces; and longtime friend, Carolyn Carter of Huntsville, AL, and her family.
Emily Jo was preceded in death by her husband of 30 years, H.C. “Woody” Colvin; parents, Emily Dorcas Sanderson Allen and Joseph Benjamin Allen; sisters, Eleanor Vivian Allen Hinton, and Anita Elizabeth Allen Sewell; and first husband, Jack H. Kelley.
Memorial donations may be made to either P.E.O. Chapter M, c/o Amanda Von Hermann, 9704 Welsh Circle SE, Huntsville, AL 35803-2622, or the Huntsville Porcelain Arts Guild, c/o Studio 60 Senior Center, at 2200 Drake Ave. SW, Huntsville, AL, 35805.
The family wishes to extend their gratitude to the compassionate staff at Loving Spaces of Huntsville, AL, who showed Emily Jo love and treated her with dignity in her final year of life.
