Mary Jo Augustine, 75, holds on to a streamline position during an early morning swim workout. Although Augustine has been around water her entire life (teaching hundreds of kids to swim) she only recently started competive swimming. She’s qualified for the National Senior Olympics later this year. KEVIN PIEPER/FOR LIVING WELL


At home on the water Mary Jo’s love of water began as a


child, when she spent every day during the summer at swimming pools. She grew up in Chillicothe, Ill., with


seven siblings, and in the summers they would swim in a pool at a nearby golf course, or the younger set of siblings would ride their bikes to the local city pool. While in high school, she was a lifeguard at area lakes and pools, but it wasn’t until she went to Saint Mary-of- the-Woods College in Indiana that she learned proper swimming strokes. Her husband, who served as an elec-


tronic technician in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, first learned to scuba dive.


While they lived in Chesapeake, Va.,


Mary Jo worked in social work and then as a fifth-grade teacher, but the two al- ways found time to kayak and hike. They moved back to Illinois, where Mary Jo


32 ❚ MAY/JUNE 2019 ❚ LIVING WELL


began teaching again. Jim already had obtained his Profes-


sional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) certification, and Mary Jo decid- ed to obtain her certification as well. “I could take anything they threw at


me,” Mary Jo says. “I wasn’t intimidated by the water. It was a natural medium.” Jim’s friend told him about Lake Nor-


fork, and in 1972, the family — which by now consisted of Patten and Jameeo — visited the Twin Lakes Area. “We really liked it,” Mary Jo said. A couple years later, Jim began teach-


ing scuba diving during the summer in Mountain Home, and opened up SCUBA Doo Dive Shop, which was in a different location at the time. Mary Jo had begun working for Cater-


pillar in Peoria, Ill., starting out as a third-shift janitor. She had planned to stay for a couple of years, but ended up working 20 years for the company, where she held positions in welding,


“You come to the pool, and you still have your problems, but they’re handled. Leave it in the


water.” Mary Jo Augustine


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