Jo Thompson is one of those rare individuals who has the ability to make everyone she meets feel like they are a personal friend. This is because Jo is truly interested in the people she meets. She just doesn't teach, MC, or judge an event and then disappear. When she's finished with her official duties, she will almost always join the dancers on the floor to learn new dances or just to dance for the joy of dancing.

Jo and I have only been friends since we worked on the Rick Tippe video together, and yet I feel that I've known her all my life. To find out how Jo Thompson developed her personality, one would have to go back to her beginnings.

Jo Thompson was born in the small Texas town of Crockett on June 1, 1965, the second child of Van Thompson and Rita Jo Thompson. When Jo was seven, the family moved to the larger east town of Lufkin. Her father was, and still is, a small independent cattle rancher on a 200 acre spread where he raises 100 to 200 heads at a time. During the summer hay season, Jo began driving the truck as soon as she was big enough to see over the steering wheel, while her father and brother would load the hay bales onto the back.

Being raised on a cattle ranch means that you're not close enough to your neighbors for the kids to run next door and play, so Jo and her brother developed a special bond early on. In addition to swimming in the creek and fishing in the pond, Jo would push toy trucks around with her brother, Eddie, and he would return the favor by playing with her Barbie dolls. (I'm sure her brother, Eddie, will be thrilled to see this online.)