Joan Knox

Norma Joan Knox (nee Eaker) was born on August 6, 1939, in Lamesa, Texas to Paulyne and John Eaker. Known as Joan, she lived in and around O’Donnell through high school, graduating in 1957, and then in and near Tahoka the rest of her life.

Joan married George Leighton Knox, Jr. on June 30, 1957. It was the hottest day of that summer in a church with a broken air conditioner and candles that melted unlit. This partnership began that would enrich so many of us. She attended Draughn’s Business School. Later she became an LVN and then an RN, serving as a floor nurse, with a stint in the ER and on ambulance calls; a season as a home health nurse; and twenty-seven years as a beloved Tahoka ISD school nurse, where she also sponsored cheerleaders and championed hundreds of children. Joan never really retiring until after the age of eighty. In her last nursing assignment, she helped train and test nurse aides.

Joan passed on the evening of Saturday April 25, peacefully, after a day of sweet interactions with family and friends. She was preceded in death by her best friend and husband of over 68 years, Leighton; her parents, Paulyne and John Eaker; and brother, Frank Eaker. Joan is survived by her children Starrlyn Bray of Tahoka and Jayson Knox of Austin; five grandchildren: Jhonathan Knox of Lubbock; Anneliese Madrigal of Istanbul, Turkey; Seth Knox of Whitefish, Montana; Daniel Knox of Dripping Springs, Texas; and Michael Knox of Austin; and nine (soon 10) great-grandchildren; and the adopted dozens of the young people for whom she was Joanie and “Nana;” and two sisters-in-law, Pat Eaker and Claudia Flippin, whom she loved deeply and who served her so well during her illness.

We will miss her mischievous smile, quick wit, tenderness, fire against injustice, and always open door. Countless others who never knew her name, or what she did “off stage,” might now find a few small kindnesses missing from their world.

Graveside services will take place at the Tahoka cemetery, Friday May 1 at 11:00am. A meal and time of remembrance follows at Grace Methodist Church in Tahoka. The family welcomes everyone to drop by the church any time before or after the service, starting 9:00AM to visit, pay respects, and tell us stories about you and Joan.