Joan Kennedy Conner

Joan’s family moved from California back to its home of Natchez, Mississippi, when Joan was a young child. In 1949, Joan earned her Bachelors’ Degree in Business Education from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where she served on the short skirt committee.

Joan immediately began teaching. She taught high school in Gulfport, Mississippi for a year. After the end of the 1949-1950 school year, Joan married her husband, William Harry Conner (“Harry Honey”), at St. Alphonsus Church in McComb, Mississippi. Joan and Harry settled in Memphis – midway between their respective home towns, but still on the river.

Joan taught in Memphis for decades. She taught 7th grade at St. Louis Elementary School; she taught business classes at Sacred Heart High School; she taught business classes at Trezevant High School and at Melrose High School. She taught at Shelby State Community College. During her tenure at SSCC, Joan was invited to be one of only a dozen or so folks teaching a course for Women in Business. She taught the basics of starting a business, keeping the books, serving customers. The businesses her students founded flourished and served customers for decades. She loved that important work.

All the while, Joan raised a family as a practically single mom. Harry traveled five days each week. He got up Monday morning and caught a flight somewhere and came home on Friday evening. Every week.

Joan adapted. She and her four girls, Ronell, Cathy, Joyce, and Marjorie, kept a chaotic but efficient household Joan even found time to get her MBA from Memphis State University in 1973. Harry may have preached education; Joan lived it.

In the mid 1980s, Joan left teaching to support Harry’s business, Conner Marketing Associates. She loved traveling with Harry and supporting the family business. Together they saw the world.

And during the 1980s, Joan became a grandmother. Jenny will always be their first grandchild. Katie followed a few years later and then Gus and Nick. A decade later, Emma Joan came along to round out the five grandchildren. Joan and Harry, aka Grammie and Biggie, love(d) their grandchildren more than anything in the world. They doted on them and showed them what pure love is.

Joan retired when Harry died in 2002. She spent her retirement sleeping late and showering her grandchildren with love. Three of her four daughters predeceased her. When Marjorie was the last daughter standing, Joan moved to live with Marjorie and Emma in Alexandria, Virginia. She loved being near the heart of the country, watching national events on the local news. Joan met her Virginia Congressmen and Senators and state representatives along the way. It was pretty fun.

After a full life, Joan left us to join her husband and daughters on the other side. She was predeceased by her devoted husband, Harry, her daughters, Ronell, Cathy, and Joyce. Her brother Patrick Kennedy and his elegant wife, Helen. Her sister Jere predeceased her, as well.

Joan is survived by her baby brother Joe Kennedy (Dallas, Texas), her youngest daughter, Marjorie, and five grandchildren, Jenny Brindell and Katie Brindell, both of Dallas, Texas; Gus Pacente and Nicholas Pacente (Memphis, Tennessee); and Emma Joan Conner (Alexandria, Virginia).

A visitation for Joan will be held Tuesday, March 23, 2021 from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM at Memphis Funeral Home and Memorial Gardens, 3700 North Germantown Parkway, Bartlett, TN 38133, followed by a graveside service at 2:00 PM.