Josephine “Jo” Chapman (1918-1991) was born in New York to Wolcott P. and Etta L. Chapman. With the death of her mother, Jo became very close to her father, including hiring and contracting him for work at her newspaper until his death. Jo entered the workforce at sixteen, working as a copy editor for the Bridgeport Time-Star, and by 1968 founded her own weekly local paper, Greenwich Mail, which ran until 1980. Between 1934 and 1968 she worked several reporting jobs and founded her own Public Relations firm in Greenwich.
Jo was also known to be civically inclined. Beginning in 1941 with World War II, Jo wanted to work with the War Department, potentially as a reporter on the homefront, although she wound up doing work with the Red Cross, an organization she participated in for the rest of her life including as a first aid instructor. She also worked with the Girl Scouts of America, was a long time member of the Repubilcan Town Committee, served essentially continuously on the Representative Town Meeting board since 1945, was elected to the Board of Tax Review in 1989, had been the president of the local Soroptimists International chapter, was the past chapter director of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and was a past director of the Crispus Attucks Association.
