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Jo Clayton was an American fantasy and science fiction author. She wrote 35 novels and many short stories. Her works sold over a million copies.
She was born Patricia Jo Clayton in Modesto, California, and was raised in the area along with two sisters by her farmsteading parents. Their parents arranged for all three children to attend college, and Jo graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Southern California in 1963. She worked as a teacher for thirteen years, beginning in Bell, California.
In 1969 she had a religious conversion and moved to New Orleans to join the Sisters of Mount Carmel, a Roman Catholic order of instructors. She left the order after three years, just before she would have taken her vows to become a nun. While in New Orleans she wrote heavily and also worked as an artist, painting people's pets. By 1983 she decided to move to Portland, Oregon.
At age 57 she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, and died from her condition a year and a half later. During her stay in the hospital she continued writing, completing a full novel and half of the last book in a trilogy.
She was survived by her mother, Bessie Clayton, and her sisters, Penn Brumm and Pamela Larsen.
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