Joan Williams
Joan (Wendt) Williams, 81, formerly of Marshalltown, passed away Thursday, February 25, 2021 at the Good Samaritan Society in Waukon. To honor her wishes, cremation rites will be given and a memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 3 at Mitchell Family Funeral Home. Visitation will be held from 10 a.m. until service time. For further information or to send her family a condolence, please visit mitchellfh.com or call 641-844-1234.
Joan Yvonne Williams was born March 29, 1939 in Manchester, the daughter of Clarence and Eva (Bacon) Wendt. She grew up there and graduated from Manchester High School with the Class of 1957. September 26, 1958, she was united in marriage to James Williams in Delaware. The couple made their home on Seventh Street in Marshalltown, which was a great neighborhood with many great mothers living on that street.
Joan and James had owned several different bars in the area over the years but Joan found time to be very active in the Marshalltown Community Theatre and appeared in several plays at the Martha Ellen Tye Theater. She retired in June 2006 from the Meskwaki Casino after 13 years there and had held various positions including the executive secretary to the general manager. She then became Resident Manager at the Embers and dearly enjoyed spending time with her Embers friends. Joan was a member of the Trinity Lutheran Church, Dillon. She moved to Waukon after a devastating tornado hit Marshalltown in 2018.
Those left to cherish her memory are her children: Lisa (Robert) Friedrichsen of Iowa, Lane (Doby) Williams of Iowa, Lee (Isabel) Williams of Arizona and Leslie (John) Miller of Colorado; nine grandchildren: Lily, Evan and Grace Williams, Carter and Connor Larson, Mazie and Eva Miller, Stuart Williams and Macy Cross; several great-grandchildren; several step-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren; her brother, Larry Wendt; and her sister, Jayne Parkin of North Carolina.
In eternal life Joan is reunited with her parents and her infant daughter, Wendy.
