JoAnn Hess

Born on March 24,1946 to Anna Geraldine and William Hoopes in Arizona, she was the second oldest child, and the heart of the family, especially after the death of her mother at the tender age of 13 and her father at the age of 24. JoAnn carried a great deal of pain and grief throughout her life and talked often of seeing those who had passed again one day, or just being jealous of the toilet-papering, picnicking-at-the-creek, running-through-orange-orchards party they were all having together up there.

JoAnn’s life was defined by the people she loved and cared for, from caring for her family after her mother’s death, raising younger siblings Bob and Sylvia and then raising her own four children, Michael, Brenda, Paul and Daniel. In her later years, after everyone was grown and gone, her sweetheart, Murry, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, adding to the long list of people who benefitted from her love and attention. She did so lovingly, intensely, imperfectly and beautifully.

JoAnn was a woman of faith, fierce independence and strong opinions. The mere mention of milk and eggs would provoke ire; the presence of snow brought out the swears. But she loved many more things than those things she despised: sunshine, mountains, church music, tacos, game nights with the McCann’s and the Nielsen’s, smut sessions (aka keeping up with her kids’ lives), camping and trips to the canyon, shopping trips with arms as wings flying out the windows of the car, laughing so hard with Sylvia that a change of underpants was necessary, baking bread, canning food and making fruit leather, tying many quilts for her grandkids, taking photos of her children in trees and starting the occasional water fight.

JoAnn loved the Lord and served in many capacities in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She and Murry were married and sealed in the Los Angeles Temple in 1967. Subsequently, many lessons were taught, sisters were visited, casseroles were delivered, ancestors were found, family home evenings were planned and temples were attended. Service and sacrifice always with a healthy dose of sass.

She is preceded in her death by her parents Geraldine and William, her long-missed older brother Jerry, her younger sister Sylvia in 2005 and her son Paul in 2018. She will be immensely missed by her sweetie, Murry and her surviving children Michael (Kimberlie) and their boys, Brenda (Thornton) and their children, and Daniel with his children as well as the much-loved brother Bob (Karri) and his family, the California contingency of Jerry’s children and, finally, the beloved daughters of the sister she raised, Sylvia: Anna, Rachel, Jessica and Michelle.

We love you, Mom. Have fun up there!

A funeral service for JoAnn will be held Saturday, January 25, 2025 at 11:00 AM at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 701 Oakwood Dr, Castle Rock, Colorado 80104. Following the funeral service will be a committal service at 2:00 PM at Bear Canyon Cemetery in Sedalia, Colorado.