Who is Johanna (Jo) Noonan (nee Arlen) from Bag of Bones and what is their importance?

Johanna came from a family with five brothers who grew up in Malden, Massachusetts. Her favorite author was W. Somerset Maugham. She and Mike Noonan met and were both English majors at the University in Maine. The last book she was reading was called the Moon and the Sixpence. Finding it under her side of the bed sets off a another bout of unrestrained tears.Johanna had been a sophomore when Mike was a senior and she once told him that the greatest tragedy of the mid-twentieth century literary critics was that they embrace Lawrence while ignoring Maugham. Jo's favorite actors were Bogart and Bacall. She loved to watch their old movies at The Shade, the revival movie house in Derry. Her last vacation before her death with Mike was to Bermuda.