Friends and family may pay their respects on Thursday, May 24, 2012 from 8am – 9 pm at Greenlawn Funeral Home North. Graveside services will be at 10:00 am Friday, May 25, 2012 at Greenlawn Memorial Gardens, Springfield, MO.
Joan Crandall passed away Tuesday, May 22, 2012 in Citizens Memorial Healthcare Facility in Bolivar. She was born July 18, 1933 in Springfield, Mo. the daughter of Walter and Elsie Mack.
She is survived by her son Cary Crandall and his wife Lynn, a grandson Jason Crandall, granddaughter Heather Arnold and her husband Jeremy, her brother Jess and his wife Lou, her sister Ramona and many nieces and nephews.
As a youngster Joan loved going dancing with the family on Saturday nights, something she never out grew. She would dance to her music throughout the house with or without a partner.
Music was a passion of Joan’s, she taught herself to play the organ and loved sharing her talent with others.
Joan did not settle down and marry after graduating high school like most girls of that age. She went on adventures instead, traveling to Mexico with her girlfriends and taking off to California to work and “sow her wild oats” as she called it.
When she returned home from California at the age of 29 she met a handsome soldier while out with her girlfriends. They married 3 months after meeting each other and never looked back. Joan followed Dean to many duty stations through the years. She looked forward to each new place as an adventure and an opportunity to see new places and meet new people.
She bore a son, Cary in Alaska during a blizzard and another, Craig five years later in Okinawa Japan during a typhoon. She helped raise two grandchildren Jason and Heather.
Joan saw her husband through a tour of Vietnam and a rocky road after the war with grace and dignity.
She met every challenge in her life with a calm peace most of us will never know. She would often say after working through a difficult situation, “I have done all I can; now I have turned it over to God.”
Her life was spent teaching, caring supporting and loving her family and friends. Well done Joan. Godspeed.