Joan Hicks Creighton

Our wonderful mother, Joan H. Creighton, passed away peacefully on March 17th, 2024, in Prairie Village, Kansas. The power of a mother’s love is not measurable, but it is comforting, familiar, everlasting and most of all, feels like home. When your mother dies, your world changes because what was true love feels broken and the one who loved you no matter the circumstances has passed from this world to bring sunshine in the next. The comfort we have is that she showed us how to love our own families and that she will now see her greatest love again.

Joan lived her life with immeasurable love for her husband, children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Joan was born in Valley Station, Kentucky on June 13, 1932. She and her family were longtime residents of Louisville. Her mother, Euthelda "Tola" Hicks, passed away in 2010 and rests in Valley Station with Joan's father, Raymond "Si" Hicks, who was a career employee of the Illinois Railroad.

After attending college in Kentucky and while working at Fort. Knox, Joan met and married the love of her life, Neal Creighton, in 1958. Joan often said that Neal was known to be a fun-loving bachelor, but she decided she would tame him. After Fort Knox, Joan and Neal were stationed at the United States Military Academy at West Point and became parents to their daughter Linda and later to daughter Lisa and son Neal while serving in Panama.

Their military career took Joan and Neal to three tours in Europe and one in Central America and, along the way, Joan served in the CIA office in Madrid, Spain and then supported her family, husband, and community.

During the 1963 Dominican coup d'état, Neal fell very sick and Joan arranged to have him evacuated to Puerto Rico for life saving measures while she was placed under house arrest by Dominican forces. Eventually, Joan was able to arrange her own evacuation with daughter Linda to Puerto Rico where she joined her husband.

During Neal’s deployment to Vietnam in 1967 as a Squadron Commander in the 11th Armored Cavalry, Joan supported the families of the Black Horse Regiment while raising her three children. When Joan’s family was stationed in Germany in the 1970s, she also worked tirelessly for the military communities in Vilseck, Schweinfurt and Göppingen. Joan’s daughters Linda and Lisa graduated from high school while the family was stationed in The Netherlands and son Neal Jr. when the family was at Fort Riley, Kansas. At Fort Riley, her husband Neal commanded the 1st Infantry Division (ID), and Joan provided support to the families of the Big Red One and was active in the surrounding Junction City and Manhattan communities.

Joan and Neal were a team in all they accomplished. In the military, the sacrifices they made were together while at the same time raising a family. In 2008, Neal published a book titled, A Different Path: A Story of an Army Family, which primarily is a 786-page love letter to Joan detailing their adventures together filled with humor, love, and mutual sacrifice. Having moved to a new post every 18 months, living in Europe and Central America, together they experienced many interesting adventures like driving from Panama to the USA in 1966 along the Inter-American Highway and crossing Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin in 1978 while being followed by Soviet soldiers.

After Joan and Neal retired from the Army, they both helped to support the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, MO, and the Army Museum in Fort Belvoir, VA. During these times, she traveled the world with Neal from Europe to Asia and spent as much time with her grown children as possible.

While living in Chicago from 1986 to 2000, Joan was the curator of the Robert R. McCormick Museum and Library and Neal ran the McCormick Foundation which focused on charitable giving throughout the United States.

In 2006, Joan and Neal retired to Lancaster, Virginia where she enjoyed entertaining their many friends and family in their home and on the surrounding waters. In 2019, when Neal’s health began to fail, she sold the home she loved to move into independent living at Claridge Court near daughter Lisa in Prairie Village, Kansas. Both Joan and Neal were well watched over by daughter Lisa and the team at Thoughtful Care and Claridge Court while being visited often by Neal Jr., Linda, and many lifelong friends.

After Neal’s passing in 2020, Joan’s heart was broken and right after his death, she was hospitalized, but had managed to hold Neal’s hand until the very last moment of his life. Her love for her husband and family was a driving force in our lives.

In January of 2022, West Point established and dedicated the Major General Neal & Joan Creighton Gymnastic Center at the United States Military Academy in honor of their support and service to our nation and to gymnastics at West Point. Joan and family were able to attend the ceremony. The Gymnastics arena displays the story of Joan and Neal and their love of family.

Joan leaves behind daughters Linda, Lisa, and son Neal along with many grandchildren and great grandchildren who will see her again in the life hereafter.

Thinking about our mom and the story of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, we would say: remember you are always your mother’s rose. She grew you, nourished you and watched over you. Now she is like a star in the sky. She has left you with your own beautiful rose. She has set you free to love the flowers of your rose as she loved you. As grownups, we often need a child to explain such simple things to see the wonder of being a mother’s rose.

God, thank you for our amazing mother, Joan H. Creighton. Please take her into your kingdom, and if she tries to tell you and Jesus what to do, remember she is almost always right. After all, she kept us on the right path for 91 years including the fun-loving bachelor she married in 1958.