Oldfield committed her life to social justice programs By Amy Rabideau Silvers of the Journal Sentinel Posted: Feb. 16, 2010 // enlarge photo Oldfield more photos Oldfield Close Jo Oldfield knew that time was short when she began dictating a final letter. "To all my dear friends, I was diagnosed with terminal cancer on January 15, 2010. I wish I had been given more time to say my good-byes to each of you individually. Please remember me in your thoughts and prayers." The message appeared in this newspaper's death notices Feb. 9. Josephine Oldfield died of brain cancer Feb. 5. She was 77. For many years, Oldfield worked and volunteered with community organizations. She last worked - for 12 years - with The Gathering of Southeast Wisconsin, which provides meals and other services to those in need. She retired in August. "I think she did her best work and came to life when she was serving at one of our meal sites," executive director Ginny Schrag said. That included working as breakfast site coordinator at St. James Episcopal Church downtown. "She was really committed to the marginalized and very deeply committed to justice," Schrag said. "She was 'Mama Jo' to many of our guests." Oldfield earlier worked as executive director of the West End Community Association, involved in improving neighborhoods and the quality of people's lives. "I feel if people who want to work can be provided decent, good-paying jobs, it will also improve the housing stock," Oldfield said in 1989, as she began serving as executive director of the association. She previously served on its housing committee. Before that, Oldfield worked with the old ESHAC group, a nonprofit housing rehabilitation agency serving Milwaukee's east side. She was that group's neighborhood improvement project director. She served as the volunteer president of the Milwaukee Career Cooperative, a group of religious and nonprofit community organizations involved in problems of unemployment and underemployment. Whatever her title, she believed in the power of people and groups working together. "There's so much work to be done," Oldfield said in 1989. "If you can coordinate . . . maybe you can have a greater impact on the area." She was born and raised on the Oldfield family farm near Kalona, Iowa, and went on to Iowa State University. She met and married Jerry Cross, who served for a time as a Methodist minister. By the late 1960s, they had moved their young family to Milwaukee. They first lived in church quarters on E. Kenwood Blvd., across the street from a brand-new and then smaller version of the student union at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. "The Methodist student center was downstairs, and we lived upstairs," daughter Jane Timmins said. "They've always been all about people and neighborhoods and civil rights," she said. "They brought my sister and me to march with Father Groppi." Her mother earned a degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and began working in the early wave of neighborhood development organizations. She and her husband later divorced, and she went back to her family name. Oldfield was an active member of Summerfield Methodist Church. She loved reading and gardening but didn't like to gossip or grumble. She wasn't afraid to tackle anything. "She bought this house and did the wiring," Timmins said. "She would get a book and sit down and figure it out. There was nothing she couldn't do. . . . She was my best friend." Other survivors include daughter Julia Cross and cousin Daryl Oldfield. A memorial gathering is being planned, probably in June, to benefit The Gathering. "She celebrated life; that's what she did, and we want to carry on with that," her daughter said.