Joanne “Jo” E, Overleese grew up in San Diego, California playing AAU basketball and softball while attending Herbert Hoover High School.  In college, she made it into the semi-professional softball ranks.  After finishing her undergraduate degree, she tried out for the All-American League in the winter of 1946 and made the grade.  She played the 1946 season at second base with the Muskegon Lassies and Peoria Redwings.  After a season, she went on to graduate from the Medical College of Pennsylvania and became a general surgeon in Philadelphia for 25 years before spending another 10 years working in the emergency room.  Later in her career, she lightened her workload and opened an office in New Jersey and still performed minor surgeries in her seventies.