JoAnn Beck

Memorial and Funeral services will be Friday, August 14, 2026 at St. Thomas More Catholic Church, 11822 Holmes Rd., Kansas City, MO 64131. Visitation 1:00 pm, Mass 2:00 pm, Reception immediately following in More Hall.

Family Graveside Services will be Friday, August 14, 2026 at 3:15pm at Mount Moriah Cemetery South, 10507 Holmes Rd., Kansas City, MO 64131.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in JoAnn’s memory to:

Saint Luke’s Foundation, Saint Luke’s Hospital Plaza – Spiritual Wellness Fund, 901 E. 104th St., #100S, Kansas City, MO 64131

JoAnn grew up a tomboy who loved animals, fly fishing, chasing crawdads, playing sports, shooting, collecting pocket knives, playing saxophone in the marching band and riding her bicycle. Though she became more sophisticated as she matured, she remained a tomboy at heart. This served her well in raising two sons and a tomboy daughter. She never protested when we three kids came home from the woods with frogs, toads, tadpoles, turtles, lizards, snakes and even an abandoned baby crow we named Jerry. She helped us learn how to care for these critters and to love them as she did. She taught us kindness and responsibility through caring for God’s creatures. She taught us that if we loved them, we had to let them go when it was time. This was a crucial lesson with Jerry the crow. She loved that crow so much that she asked for a crow-sized bird bath for her birthday that year. We found one but the day we got it was the day Jerry flew off to join the other crows. She was sad but also so happy that Jerry was strong enough to join the flock. That was Mom, always more concerned about others than she was about herself. She loved hummingbirds, songbirds and butterflies and enjoyed having flowers and feeders to attract them to her patio so she could watch them.

JoAnn was a natural leader, very smart, organized and analytical. She earned an accounting degree at MU at a time when it was not common for women to do so. She had leadership roles in her sorority Alpha Chi Omega and made lifelong friends. She graduated, married and worked until she had children and then became a stay-at-home mom. But never one to sit on her laurels, she made crafts to sell and did accounting for companies from home. She was very involved with all of our childhood activities from school PTA to school carnivals to sports. She saw a need to keep kids safe at school and organized Basic Aid Training, the precursor to school nurses, at our grade school and went on to organize it for the entire school district. She was our private tutor, counselor, sports coach, encourager, and cheerleader.

Our house always served as a gathering place for family and friends. She would prepare snacks and we would do crafts, play volleyball, kickball, tetherball, badminton or croquet in the backyard. Mom always made our friends feel welcome and many came to think of her as a second mom. Even when we went off to college, she didn’t mind when we invaded her house with a group of friends. She would fix food and sit and talk with our friends. She was definitely the cool mom.

As we got older, Mom wasn’t just our mom; she was also our friend. She was always there for us when we needed her even when we didn’t know we needed her. She was there for heartbreaks, career decisions, health scares, marriages, grandchildren, grand-dogs and everything in between. She did retail therapy to deal with the stresses of life but for her, the therapy was finding just the right thing for her kids, grandkids or her friends. Giving the perfect gift brought her so much joy. She was great at finding the thing you needed that you didn’t know you needed but would make your life easier or more fun. She had an incredible knack for gift-giving for sure.

She always put her family and friends ahead of her own needs. She had more than her fair share of health issues and endured a lot of pain over the last 30 years, but many wouldn’t know as she didn’t complain and didn’t let it dim her joy. She bore her challenges with grace. The last 10 years of her life, she let her spirit of wonder blossom and had many new adventures in her life. She reconnected with high school classmates and attended yearly reunions which she loved. She became more social just for fun rather than for a purpose. She loved her cul-de-sac dinners, Covid driveway parties, monthly book clubs and aqua fitness. She had many firsts in her latter years: bought her own house and decorated it, picked out and purchased a new car, went to a Royals game, took a cruise, flew by herself, stayed in a fancy hotel, operated heavy equipment (supervised, of course), finally got the Thunderbird she always dreamed about. But most impressive, just prior to her 85th birthday, she hiked 3 miles to the top of Black-Lick Mountain in Arkansas. She said it was one of the greatest adventures of her life. She was working hard to get everything possible out of life and always seemed to be up for a new adventure. She was the bravest, strongest and most thoughtful person we know and we miss her desperately.

JoAnn was preceded in death by her parents, Warren and Stella Hedges, and Hugh Beck, Jr. She is survived by her three children, Hugh (Rusty) Beck, III – spouse Charlotte and children Erica and Hugh IV, Grant Beck and Andrea Fluke – spouse Daniel, her sister Shirley Schotte.