Fashion show to celebrate Jo Herron
Bethann Hinig models one of the hundreds of gowns in the collection.
A two-day celebration of the wardrobe of the late Jo Herron is coming to the Reeves Victorian Home and Carriage House Museum May 16 and 17. The Jo Herron Fashion Extravaganza will feature models showing off the Herron collection of clothing and accessories, which came into the Dover Historical Society’s collection after Herron’s passing in 2021.
"If you knew Jo," said Libby Murphy, curator of the collection, "well, if she went out to the drug store, for example, she would wear an ensemble of dress, purse, jewelry, hat, gloves."
"So even people who didn’t know her knew her as the woman who was always dressed to the nines,” historical society director Shelagh Pruni said, “always dressed up.”
“Everybody just loved her,” Murphy said. “She was a teacher in New Philadelphia. She never married and was so well loved. She went on more than 60 cruises, and when she went on the cruises, she would wear the full sparkling gowns and sit at the captain’s table.”
Herron taught at East and South elementaries in New Philadelphia for 30 years and also was well known for her wit, humor and talent as a ventriloquist.
The collection is almost staggering in size, and much of the carriage house second floor is taken up with plastic tubs of clothing in preparation for the extravaganza. Additionally, back rooms are filled with racks of sparkling gowns, leather and fur coats, boxes of shoes, scarves, and feathery wraps.
It was said by her students, who kept track, that Herron never wore the same outfit twice. Looking at the sheer size of the collection, there is no reason to question the veracity of this claim.
The fate of the enormous collection was up in the air until Anne Geib Dorris of Geib Funeral Homes suggested the collection might be of interest to the museum. “We were able to go to the house and wow,” Murphy said. “If a closet could hold 25 garments, there were 75 things in there, and she had numerous closets filled.”
The collection is not vintage, and Herron was not selective about the sources of the clothes she loved. “She shopped at mall stores, at Fashion Bug, in catalogs or Goodwill. She liked what she liked and utilized any source available,” Murphy said. “She was not a fashion snob. She never tried anything on, so the sizes vary widely. If she saw something she liked, she’d just say, ‘I can make this work,’ and she’d buy it.”
“It’s hard to nail down what her fashion tastes really were, but she chose things that made a splash and were flattering for her style,” Pruni said. “It’s not just that the collection is so large, but that the pieces tend to be so loud. So the word extravagant really applies, and that’s why the show is a Jo Herron Fashion Extravaganza.”
Each day of the extravaganza will begin with refreshments and available wine at 6:15 p.m. in the carriage house. Tickets are $35 or $30 for museum members and are available at the museum.
Murphy said the show will be very casual. “Models will come out in the clothes, fully accessorized, and interact with the audience. People are encouraged to get a good look and ask questions.”
Some of the show will feature Herron’s signature Christmas dresses, always in vivid reds and greens.
“We are going through the collection, and there are so many purses and necklaces, gloves and brooches. There must be more than 60 watches. It’s really any fashionista’s dream, going through all these clothes,” Murphy said.
The Reeves Victorian Home and Carriage House Museum is at 325 E. Iron Ave. in Dover. To purchase tickets by phone or for more information, call the museum at 330-343-7040. The museum is online at www.doverhistory.org.