Joanne M. Hemingway

HEMINGWAY, EVANS, MURPHY, SIEBELS, UTOFF, BEAMS

Posted By: Harvey W. Henry (email)
Date: 3/17/2009 at 11:06:18

Joanne M. Hemingway
Born: March 01, 1932
Died: January 29, 2009
Services:Funeral Mass will be celebrated Tuesday, February 3, 2009 at 10 am at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Iowa City. A reception will follow the service. Graveside Services will be at 1:30pm Tuesday at the Oasis Cemetery.
Visitation:Friends may call Monday from 4 to 8pm at Lensing Funeral and Cremation Service in Iowa City, where a rosary will be recited at 7pm. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to St. Mary’s Church or the Mercy Hospital Foundation for Diabetes Education.
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Joanne M. (Evans) Hemingway, 76, of rural Iowa City died Thursday, January 29, 2009 at Solon Care Center following a long illness.

Joanne was born March 1, 1932 in Iowa City, the adopted daughter of Judge Harold Davis Evans and Marguerite Murphy Evans. She attended Longfellow Elementary School and was a 1950 graduate of City High School. Joanne attended the University of Iowa, where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega (Sigma Chapter). On June 17, 1953 she married Keith Hemingway at St. Mary’s Church in Iowa City.

Joanne was a founding member of West Branch Chapter CW of TTT and was the president of the West Branch PTA twice. She served as a docent at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, where she wrote and produced skits which promoted the Library. Joanne was a member of PEO, Chapter KZ, and the Red Cedar and Old Capitol Questers. She served as the State Recording Secretary for Questers and helped to computerize their State membership Directory. Joanne was an Iowa Wallace Farmer Master Homemaker.

She was actively involved with the Johnson County Republican Party during the Reagan era, and was co-chairperson for the campaigns of Congressman Cooper Evans and State Representative Vic Stueland. She hosted parties after many UI-ISU football games and Campaign parties for Jim Leach and Cooper Evans.

Joanne co-authored the book, Out of War, A Legacy of Art on Hoover Flour Sacks, and in 1976 researched and wrote the book, House on Strawbridge Road, 100th Anniversary of the Coulter House.

Joanne loved Iowa, its people, and the people of the World. She and Keith welcomed the International Writers Program to tour their farm and enjoy true Iowa hospitality with a great food, music and dance. Joanne would award a geode, Iowa’s State rock, to the writer who came the farthest distance. As she broke open the geode to reveal its crystals Joanne would explain that Iowans, “may appear rough on the outside, but once you get to know us, we sparkle.” Joanne liked to garden and enjoyed history, theater and raucous satire. She loved her family and cherished the time spent with grandchildren.

The family extends their appreciation to the caregivers at Solon Care Center who so lovingly cared for their wife, mother, and grandmother.

Joanne is survived by Keith, her loving husband of 55 years, their four children and seven grandchildren, Stephen (Katherine) of Iowa City and their children Ben (Jenny) Hemingway and Leanne (Bryan Siebels); David Hemingway of St. Louis; Ann (Vince) Uthoff of Solon and their children Jordan, Johanna, Samuel and Elizabeth; Philip (Anita)Hemingway of Iowa City and their daughter, Monica; brother-in-law Elmer Hemingway and sisters-in-law Glee Leet and Esther Burns; first cousins, Marilyn Holshouser, David Beams and Jim (Anna)White;13 nieces and nephews. Joanne was preceded in death by her parents, her aunts, Gertrude Murphy and Mona Beams, and her nephew Paul Hemingway.