ABERDEEN – Josephine Moore honored Mary well beyond the traditional month of May — she prayed the rosary many times each day and searched out garage sales for statues of the mother of Jesus.
“Josie would buy every tiny or big statue of the Holy Mother she could find, since she could not bear the thought of them ending up at some landfill or with a person who would not appreciate them,” said close friend Madonna Renville. She and Moore, who died in 2007 at age 81, were fellow members of Our Lady of Good Help Church in Hoquiam.
Perhaps the most visible sign of Moore’s lifelong devotion to Mary is her collection of more than 300 rosaries, displayed at her other parish, St. Mary’s in the neighboring city of Aberdeen.
“After Mom’s death, we gathered all of her rosaries and my wife and I had them framed and hung at St. Mary’s Church in Aberdeen, since they had the space available for the large frames,” said Greg Moore, one of her sons.
The six large frames in the hallway of the parish center display rosaries large and small, arranged by color or type. There are rosaries made with wooden beads; rosaries in shades of blue, pink, red and green; black rosaries; and neutral rosaries in creams and whites. One frame includes a small plaque in Moore’s memory.
Born in Raymond to Croatian immigrants, Moore began collecting rosaries early in her life. She married Jerry Moore and they moved to Hoquiam, where they had seven children.
After their 4-year-old son, Kenny, died in 1960, Josie donated a statue of Mary to the Hoquiam parish in his honor. The local Knights of Columbus helped build a prayer garden around the statue, which can still be seen on the parish grounds today.