Mary Jo Slocum

Memorial services for Mary Jo Slocum, 74, of LeClaire, IA, will be 11:00 am on Friday, May 29, 2026, at McGinnis-Chambers Funeral Home, Bettendorf. Inurnment will take place at the Rock Island National Cemetery, Rock Island, IL. Family will greet friends on Friday from 9:00 am to 11:00 am at the funeral home.

Mary Jo Slocum (nee Potter) passed away surrounded by loved ones on Saturday, May 23, 2026, at the Clarissa C. Cook Hospice in Bettendorf, Iowa. She rejoins her mother, Ida Marie (Carlson) Potter, Father John James Potter, brother Nicholas Adair Bainbridge, brother “Tim” Carl Potter, and countless friends from an incredibly rich life.

Mary Jo was “born in a blizzard” on March 2nd, 1952, in the backseat of a car en route to the hospital in Savanna, Illinois. She grew up in Hanover, Illinois, enjoying horseback riding and the country life before attending the University of Wisconsin – Platteville. She met her husband David Wesley Slocum while he was working at the Savanna Depot, and the two married on September 15th of 1979.

Together they traveled the world, giving birth to their first son Walter John Slocum while stationed in Germany in 1981, and their 2nd son Kenneth Potter Slocum in Pennsylvania in 1986 before moving to Le Claire, Iowa where they raised the family in a rural farmhouse filled with laughter and her beloved blues music. She worked as a social worker for years at Bethany for Children & Families, touching countless lives with her tireless belief that each and every human being deserved love, fair treatment, and help when they needed it.

She served for decades on the Mississippi Valley Blues Society, where she helped organize the Quad Cities Blues Fest and worked to grow the music scene throughout the quad city metro area.

No one loved life quite like Mary Jo. She and Dave enjoyed adventures all over Europe, visiting dear friends in France and the UK. But she could be found most in her element on the streets of New Orleans, her adopted home since her first trip there in the 1970’s. A frequent leisure visitor, duty called during Hurricane Katrina when Mary Jo put her experience as a social worker towards volunteerism to help families get back on their feet. This was the start of several stints with the Red Cross, a testament to her inability to look away when she saw any human suffering.

She will be missed dearly by her friends all over the world. She brought a laugh to each and every room she entered, right down to the hospice room. She loved unconditionally, and tenderly, always there to listen and to understand. She quickly made friends of everyone she met, and in turn immediately earned the undying love of her in-laws and beloved grandchildren, Lila Grace and Steven Chance Slocum.

Every moment shared with Mary Jo was a gift. Her husband, children, and grandchildren will keep her memory alive with countless stories of a life truly live