She was born January 19, 1949 in Brookline, MA to Walter Bizzell and Ruth Levenson Bizzell. Her father was a veteran of WWII and was part of the liberation of France. In her childhood, the family lived in Sharon, Massachusetts near her grandmother. Her grandmother in her younger years had been a ballerina in the Boston Opera. The family grew from three to four with the birth of her sister, Lynda, in 1952. After the passing of her grandmother, they moved to Little Rock, Arkansas to be near her father’s family. Her brother, Eddie, was born a few years later in 1958. She graduated from Hall High School in Little Rock in 1967.
After graduating high school, Joan moved to Memphis to study at Memphis State. In Memphis, she met her future husband, Richard (Rick) Davis of Plymouth, Massachusetts, who she married in 1968. She caught the travel bug early in life, and one of her first big adventures was traveling to Bethel, New York in 1969 to attend Woodstock, an experience she would never forget.
In her early years of married life, Joan worked as a surgical nurse. Her son, Jeremy, her first child, was born on April 1, 1971 in Albany, Georgia where Rick was stationed with the Navy. He was overseas when Jeremy was born and saw him for the first time after returning from serving on an aircraft carrier off of Vietnam 3 months later. She gave birth to her daughter, Julie, in January 1977 in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
In 1978, the family moved to Arkansas to be closer to Joan’s side of the family. After a few years in Benton and Little Rock, they settled in Fort Smith. She and Rick divorced shortly after. Ready for a change, she went back to school and got a teaching degree with a specialization in special education. As a single mom, she went on to get her Master’s while working full time and raising two children. She had a long, fulfilling career as a teacher in Fort Smith Public Schools. She spent over 25 years working with kids with learning disabilities, many of them neglected and marginalized, to overcome challenges and barriers to learning. When once asked “why teaching?” She replied, “I want to help kids become their best, and feel good about themselves.”
She was a quiet person of faith and cared deeply for the welfare of others. She loved to give and donated to many causes including St. Judes Hospital, Habitat for Humanity, Doctors without Borders and others.
She was always working on puzzles - her lifetime hobby. Her closets were stacked floor to ceiling with puzzle boxes of all sizes and varieties. Her favorites were a collection of puzzles that her father-in-law, a carpenter, had made for her by hand using a jigsaw in his cellar.
After retiring in 2013, she was free to pursue her passions, including travel, reading, puzzles, spending time with her grandkids, and hanging out with her friends at Sweet Bay coffee shop. She never stopped teaching, even in retirement, working at Sylvan Learning Center a few days a week up to a few months before her passing.
During her lifetime, she had the opportunity to travel the world, taking trips to Europe, Australia, Fiji, India, Thailand, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Chile, Peru, and Alaska. One of her favorite places on earth was the family lakefront “camp” in Casco, Maine on Parker Pond. She spent many summers there sitting by the water, riding in the pontoon boat, eating lobster and spending time with loved ones.
Joan is preceded in death by her parents, Walter and Ruth Bizzell of Little Rock, and leaves behind to cherish her memory her son, Jeremy Davis, and daughter-in-law, Treena Bishop of Casco, Maine, her daughter, Julie Scott of Fort Smith and 5 grandchildren, Connor, Madelyne, Logan, Drew and Levi; her sister, Lynda Yarbrough of Little Rock, and her brother, Edward Bizzell, and sister-in-law, Linda Sue Bizzell of Gulf Shores, AL.
A Celebration of Life service will be held at Edward’s Funeral Home Chapel on May 3, 2024 at 11 am.
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