Georgiana (Jo) Graham Vaughn Mattern passed away at 12:20 PM on April 11, 2025 in Chandler, Maricopa County, Arizona. Jo was born at Fitzsimons General Hospital in Fitzsimons, Adams County, Colorado on Aug. 24, 1938, the oldest of three children of Willa Lee French Graham and Colonel Walter Nicholls Graham USAF. She has two children, Brian David Vaughn (1961) and Karla Sue Vaughn (1964).

She married Melvin Lawrence Vaughn, Aug. 29, 1959, at Highland Park Christian Church in Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa and divorced Jan. 7, 1972, in Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona. On Oct. 26, 1974, she married Charles Edwin Mattern at Strawberry Chapel in the Pines in Pine, Gila County, Arizona and divorced May 28, 1986, in Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona.

As a child of a USAF officer, she spent time in Fort Huachuca, Cochise County Arizona, Heidelberg, Germany shortly after WWII, Walker Air Force Base, Roswell, Chaves County, New Mexico and Waco, McLennan County, Texas among other locations.

She graduated from Waco High School in Waco, McLennan County, Texas in 1956. On Aug. 10, 1960, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Iowa. She moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1961. On May 15, 1961, she became a Professional Registered Nurse in the state of Arizona, working first at St. Joseph's Hospital before becoming a Maricopa County public health nurse. In her role as a public health nurse, she immunized the homeless and children of Maricopa County, retiring from the County in 2000.

Outside of her career, she loved oil painting, gardening, reading, and raising her two children and their children. She won first place in the art division of the Pan American Student Forum contest in Austin Texas and a blue ribbon at the Heart O' Texas fair for her oil painting.

Left to share her story are two children, Brian David Vaughn (Rui Fang Ou Yang) and Karla Sue Vaughn Kretsch (Donald Kretsch) and four grandchildren, Dillon Vaughn, Trevor (Ashley) Vaughn, Luke Kretsch, and Marissa (Missy) Kretsch, two step grandchildren, Elizabeth Sun and Angela Sun, one sister, Marsha Lee Graham (Peter Stansill) as well as many extended family and friends.

Internment Fairmount Cemetery, Colorado, Block 56, Lot 9, #6. Colonel Walter Nicholls Graham (1956) and Willa "Willie" Lee French Graham (1993), James Irving Graham and Elizabeth Brown Nicholls Graham (grandparents), Samuel Nicholls and Mary Jane Lewis Nicholls and David Graham and Eva R. Irving Graham Peck (great grandparents) are interned at Fairmont as is her sister Saundra Sue Graham Wallace (2012).