Joan Louise (Maerker) Street-Entingh

Street-Entingh, Joan Louise (nee Maerker) was born at home in the middle of a snowstorm in Springfield, OH on Sunday, March 6, 1932 to William Maerker, Jr. and Yetta (Hill) Maerker. As she told the story, the doctor who delivered her trudged through several feet of snow to get to the house. Her ancestry traced primarily to English and German roots, with some Scandinavian and Irish. She was raised by loving parents who gave her a younger sister, Marilyn Maerker Riley, whom she treasured.

Joan excelled in school work and in music, having taken piano lessons from the age of nine. In junior high school she received a good citizenship metal. As a dedicated Christian, she memorized 500 Bible verses for Rural Bible Crusade and earned a week at Bible camp. In high school, the local paper featured her picture holding an open Bible and published an accompanying article titled, “What The Teen-Agers Are Doing: Student’s Activities Leading to a Religious Career.” Her efforts resulted in two weekly prayer services being instituted at Springfield High School.

Following high school, Joan attended Baptist Bible Institute in Cleveland, Ohio. While there, John Street, the new young pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church in her hometown called on her parents. He glimpsed her picture on the piano, and the two were later married on Thanksgiving Day in 1951. John and Joan were devoted to one another, and many ministry years followed in which she assisted him as a pianist at church, a counselor to hurting women, and a gracious hostess in their home. Their 28 years of full-time ministry took them to 1) Maranatha Baptist Church, Springfield, OH (8 years); Bible Baptist Church, El Centro, CA (2 years); Calvary Baptist Church, Conneaut, OH (9 years); and First Baptist Church, Caldwell, OH (9 years); as well as to a part-time ministry at Ohmer Park Church, Dayton, OH (early-to-mid 1980s).

During a span of six years in the 1950s, Joan gave birth to three children: John, Rebecca, and Martha. John and Joan cultivated an atmosphere of camaraderie, humor, and spiritual focus in their home. After John’s sudden death in 1985, Joan persevered through deep grief to complete 19 years as a Resident Director at Cedarville University. For most of those years, she supervised a women’s dorm of 200-plus students. Her grandchildren thought the Maddox dorm she supervised was the “coolest” house in the world when they visited Grandma Street.

Joan retired from Cedarville College in 1997 and moved to Spokane, WA, where she resided with her daughter and son-in-law, Rebecca and Steve Stewart, and their sons, Zachary and Jonathan. Her ministry focus became her eight grandchildren, which also included Martha’s children, Sam and Kasey Harris; and John’s children, Krista, Melissa, Jay, and James Street.

In 2004, after 19 years of widowhood, she remarried “Dad Ray” Entingh, and moved back to Ohio. She referred to him as “my loving husband in my late years,” and she relished the companionship she enjoyed with him until his death in 2013. In 2014 she moved to Santa Clarita, CA to join her son, John, and his wife, Janie. The extended family delighted in numerous reunions at John’s house until Joan’s death from a hemorrhagic stroke on April 19, 2018 following years of renal disease.

Joan leaves three children: son and daughter-in-law, John and Janie (Neely) Street; daughter and son-in-law, Steve and Rebecca (Street) Stewart; and daughter, Martha (Street) Harris-Thomas; eight grandchildren: Krista (Street) Breedveld and husband, Sean; Sam Harris, Jr.; Zachary Stewart and wife, Kateri; Melissa (Street) and husband, Jess; Kasey Harris; Jonathan Stewart and wife, Abigail; Jay Street and wife, Julianne; and James Street; ten great-grandchildren: Abigail, Austin, and Jackson Breedveld; Felicity, John, and Adeleine Arnds; Nathaniel and Philip Stewart; and Claire and Jane Stewart. She also leaves five dear nephews and nieces, and numerous step-children and their families.

Wherever Joan resided, she brought joy. Her life was one of sacrifice on behalf of others as she strived to love the Lord her God and her neighbor as herself. She is and will be deeply missed. Her children rise up and call her blessed. Graveside services will be held privately. Condolences for the family can be made at www.tobiasfuneralhome.com