Joan was born in Providence, Rhode Island on February 26, 1944 to Raymond and Josephine (Herr) Bourdeau, but she was forever a (South) Jersey girl. She grew up and attended school in Pleasantville, New Jersey and became a lifelong fan of the beach. (She even made address labels that read “Joan Sea Thievon”).
Joan attended Vermont College in Montpelier, Vermont. Vermont College, being an all-girls’ school, she liked to reminisce about “panty raids” from the nearby boys’ school. Ironically, though she really hated flying, her first job after college was at the Federal Aviation Administration where she met and married an aeronautical engineer and pilot, William (Bill) Thievon.
Joan and Bill were married over 50 years. They raised three children together in Oklahoma City, and then promptly returned to the east coast after retirement. They enjoyed traveling, marking off most every lighthouse in the United States and Canada on their journeys (by car, of course) together. When their three children were younger, they went on many long road trips in a motorhome, visiting numerous National Parks and state parks and always a summer trip to New Jersey. Joan was an obsessive photographer, chronically every adventure and goings-on, she had dozens upon dozens of photo albums to prove it.
Scrapbooking, opera (Pavarotti!), football (Tom Brady!), sending funny cards (Hallmark knew her by name), animals (except those @#$% squirrels), and collecting lighthouses were favorites. Joan also loved golf, a sport she shared with her husband and children, and bowling, for which she had a litany of trophies. After retiring from bowling (that darn back of hers!), she and her bowling buddies, Carol and Judy, kept a standing game night for years and years. Joan loved her friends with a passion. Her middle school best friend, Diana, and her college roommate, Suzanne, were closer than sisters.
Like all good grandmothers (though never call her that, she insisted on JoJo), she loved her three grandsons beyond measure, though there was debate amongst her children whether her first grand-dog was actually her favorite.
Joan is survived by her son William Thievon and wife Erna of Wiesbaden, Germany; daughter Linda (Thievon) Crossman and husband Michael of Frisco, TX; son Edward Thievon and wife Susan of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. Grandsons Nathaniel, Nicholas, and David; and her brother Raymond Bourdeau of Lonaconing, Maryland.
She was preceded in death by her husband William Joseph Thievon and parents, Raymond and Josephine (Herr) Bourdeau.
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