Joan Noojin Hendry was swept up into the arms of Jesus October 31, 2019. She was surrounded by her family during her Homecoming, and there was bittersweet joy that she had moved on to her eternal home.
Joan was born in Birmingham and raised in Anniston, Alabama. She gave her heart to Jesus when she was a little girl. She loved to dress like a gypsy and ride the bus to Birmingham, where she would wander around and pretend to be a mysterious stranger. This was the beginning of a lifelong passion for travel and cultures for a young Alabama girl.
Jobud, as she was known by family and most friends, loved art, music, and literature and passed on that love to her children. She taught us to serve, to love, and to caretake. She taught us that the gift is in the giving. She championed each one of us, telling us we could do anything we wanted to if we set our minds to it, and it instilled a belief in self that we carry into today.
She traveled far and wide. Riding elephants in Thailand, hovercraft in China, and seeing Halley’s Comet in Fiji were just a couple of the highlights of her adventures. She told us she once saw the Northern Lights as a child, but allowed she might have only imagined it since, after all, it was in Alabama…
Her art studio was filled to the brim with every scrap of beauty, no matter how small, that she intended to repurpose into yet another work of art. Many friends were recipients of her creations.
Yet, if you were to ask her about what was important to her, she would answer without hesitation that her relationship with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ would be at the center of her heart. She taught us, as children, the importance of this and then reinforced it in our later years. She was a bright light, and countless people have been touched by the outpouring of His Spirit and His Love as they encountered her in whatever manner unfolded, and she always prayed that people would be drawn to faith by seeing Him shine in her life.
When asked, as her life wound down, what we could do for her, she answered in a hushed tone, “Nothing for me, all for Him.” Let us give Him all the Glory!!
She is predeceased by her parents and her first husband, Robert L. Noojin. She is survived by her precious sweetheart and current husband, William “Billy” Hendry; her three adoring children, Niki, Rob (Velma), and Laura; her grandchildren, Marshall, Joshua, Myra, Sarah, Amanda, Jayde, and Jenna; her beautiful new great-granddaughter Brooklyn; her three stepsons, Will, Haynes, and Tap; her five step grandchildren, Amanda, Kristen, Sara, Sidney, and Caroline. She also leaves behind a special “daughter in heart,” Wendy Ballard.
A celebration of life will be held on Tuesday, November 5, 2019, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Tampa Woman’s Club, 2901 Bayshore Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33629. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Lifepath Hospice of American Cancer Society.
