She was born in Macomb Illinois on August 17, 1935. She graduated high-school from Western High in 1953, and completed some college courses at DePauw University in Indiana before marrying William Eugene Pennington on July 23rd, 1954. She has one sister, Kathy Landis Bowman, who was born November 21, 1952.
Joan and Bill ended up moving to California around 1959 with their two children, Michael (4) and Lynn (1) for Bills career as a store manager for various five and dime stores while living in Indio and Lancaster, California. They purchased a “franchise” variety store and decided to try and make it on their own but circumstances made it difficult for their business to survive.
Their third child, Traci was born while in Lancaster and a couple of years later they decided to move to Orange, California, where Joan lived for the remainder of her life.
Bill received a job as store manager in Orange and Joan worked with him for several years before getting a job at the Orange County Department of Education as a clerk in the Audit department. Joan worked here for approximately 23 years and retired when she was 58. She made several great friends stayed in touch throughout the years.
Joan and Bill attended the First Presbyterian Church with their 3 children, and also taught Sunday School and really enjoyed teaching the bible to the children.
Later they attended Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, CA where they developed great friendships and were able to travel to many places throughout the world with the church travel group.
Joan went to Israel several times and has commented that this was the most wonderful trip she’s ever taken.
Joan became involved in the women’s Bible study group at Calvary, and maintained friendships with these women even after she was unable to attend.
Speaking of friendships, she had several great girlfriends while growing up in Macomb, IL, and stayed in touch with all of them throughout the years. She would often times go back for the annual Heritage Days at the end of June every year, which celebrated Macomb’s heritage with a carnival and all class reunion. She was able to see her friends here as well.
She also made great friends
Joan explored her creative side by taking a painting class at the local community college (at night) and discovered she had quite the talent. She also dabbled in sewing and knitting and was quite good at these as well.
She became a member of DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) and was very interested in Geneology. She did quite a bit of research on the family and really enjoyed it.
Joan and Bill also enjoyed many organized bike rides on their tandem.
Joan was a beautiful, smart, talented and organized woman with a love for the Lord.
She went to heaven the day Bill was born.
She is survived by
Sister: Kathy Bowman
Children: Michael Craig Pennington, Lynn Denise Fleming and Traci Diane Pennington
Grandchildren: Ryan Berry, Daniel Maltz
Great Grandchildren: Analisa Berry, Hatchford Berry, Bexton Berry
Nieces & Nephews: Jennifer & Michael den Hartog and children,
Sarah Weible and children, Randy McDonald
in lieu of flowers please make a donation to the Michael J Fox foundation for Parkinson’s. https://www.michaeljfox.org/donate
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