Joanne Eleanor Birkin

On the afternoon of February 2nd, 2023, Joanne Eleanor Birkin, of Raleigh, North Carolina, went home to be with the Lord at the age of 94. She was born in Wilmette, Illinois and was the oldest of three children born to Dr. Joseph and Anne Salberg.

As a child, Joanne lived in Wilmette and graduated from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois in 1947. She then started college at the University of Illinois in Urbana and later finished her higher education at the University of Colorado in Boulder with a degree in education. This is where she would go on to meet and later marry her husband, Vergean Birkin. They lived in Boulder for a few years before they moved to Raleigh, NC where Vergean would become a professor at Meredith College. She would go on to later get her Masters in Education from Meredith College.

In addition to raising three children, she thoroughly enjoyed being an elementary school teacher for over 30 years in Franklin County. In her spare time she loved sewing and singing with a choir group, Sweet Adelines.

After she retired from working she liked to keep busy cultivating her many talents by painting portraits of her grandchildren; dancing at recitals with friends in the dancing group, Star Strutters; playing the piano at various retirement homes around the Triangle; and attending and throwing dinner parties with her favorite Sunday School friends.

She is survived by her son: Kevin Birkin of Raleigh; daughter-in-law, Angie Markovetz (Don), of Mount Olive; daughter: Linda Tigges and husband, David Dodson, of Raleigh; daughter: Kristin Haines, of Raleigh; three grandsons and their families: Robert (Barbara) Birkin and their two sons, Gavin and Grayson of Mount Olive; Sean (Sarah) Birkin and their daughter, Hailey, of Bradenton, Fla.; and Isaac Tigges of Raleigh; and two granddaughters: Krissy Birkin, of Mount Olive and Kayley Tigges, of Raleigh; and by many other nieces, nephews, and relatives in Nebraska, Washington, and Hawaii.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband Vergean, sister Sally Britton, and brother, Robert Salberg.

Family will receive friends on Saturday, February 11, 2023 from 10-11 am at Brown-Wynne Funeral Home in Cary, with Funeral Services to begin at 11 am in the funeral home chapel. A Private Family Graveside Service will follow at Raleigh Memorial Park; however, all are welcomed back to Joanne's Home that afternoon from 2-5 pm.

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