Jody was born and raised in Columbus Ohio, lived in Florence SC for the 4 years she attended high school, then returned to Ohio to attend Ohio Northern University. She graduated in 1980 with a BS in civil engineering. Through a series of twists and turns, God led her to Port Lavaca. In the last 39 years, she has worked in construction, in private engineering and surveying practices, as the City Public Works Director in 1986-89, the City Engineer in 2001-2007 and beginning 10 days prior to Hurricane Harvey, she returned to the City in her current position as the City Engineer/Community and Economic Development Coordinator for the City. With Hurricane Harvey having such an impact on our community, she has been wrestling with FEMA and working on various recovery efforts of the City since August 25, 2017. Over 18 months after the storm, this work is still ongoing. Jody also spends time volunteering as the children’s theatre director at the Port Lavaca Main Street Theatre. 2019 marks her 21st annual all-children’s production at the theatre. This year’s show is Charlotte’s Web and will be playing between June 7-16. Another passion that she enjoys is amateur genealogy. She became addicted to this pastime about 10 years ago when she inherited a wonderful old photo album after the passing of her mother-in-law. Determined to learn all she could about the lives of the people in this album as well as her own family, she subscribed to ancestry.com and worked many many long hours over several years to build family trees for herself, her husband, son-in-laws, and friends. Now what to do with all this information is the topic of today’s talk.  Jody is married to Port Lavaca native Larry Weaver, who works for Calhoun County Precinct 4. They have 3 grown daughters and 5 beautiful granddaughters ranging in age from 10 months to 5 years. Her granddaughers know her as “Mini.”

Jody will share her experiences writing family stories, particularly L.E. Weaver in the Pacific theater of WWII.