With profound sadness we announce the passing of Joanna Marie (Krabill) McCreedy, a devoted mother, grandmother and friend to all whose lives she touched. She passed peacefully from our world on November 21, 2020. She was 87.
Joanna was born on June 4, 1933, to Lena and Lester Krabill in Washington, Iowa, where she spent her childhood as a member of a close-knit Mennonite community. She completed nurse’s training at Bethel College in Kansas, and married her high-school sweetheart, Gordon McCreedy, in 1954. They moved to Colorado, where they spent the rest of their lives. Joanna worked as a nurse while Gordon attended medical school. Then, while Gordon built his practice, Joanna devoted herself to her ever-growing family and her community.
Joanna was vivacious and always made people around her laugh. She made friends everywhere she went. She was a dedicated wife and mother first and foremost, treasuring every moment with her husband, children, and grandchildren. She loved being with kids, volunteered as a nurse at the school clinic, and taught Sunday school for many years. Accomplished at music, she participated in music clubs and groups all her life, including the church choir, and was always ready to accompany a sing-a-long on the piano. She loved traveling, especially to Iowa and to family reunions, where she was never happier than laughing with her beloved siblings—Vincent, Milburn, Jeannette and Evelyn—and the rest of her extended family.
Joanna and Gordon loved the Rocky Mountains. They were always adventurous and generous with their hospitality, taking their children, parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, friends, children’s friends, and friends’ children (not to mention dogs) on unforgettable alpine excursions. Joanna also always found time for her PEO sisters and contributed her efforts to various groups and charities.
In later years, Joanna rejoined the Mennonite Church, and continued to travel. She talked to her sisters on the phone almost every day in their last years. More than anything else, she cherished her role as “Grammy,” pouring love into her seven grandchildren.
She will be remembered for her warm heart, her passion for life, her enthusiastic celebration of holidays, her devotion to the Broncos, and her zest for skiing, playing tennis, entertaining, and giving gifts (especially noisy kid-delighting toys).
Joanna was predeceased by Gordon, her husband of forty-one years; her siblings; and her son, Mark. She will live on through her children, Alan, David, Michael and Amy; her grandchildren, Niko, Anna, Lindsay, Katie, Maddie, Benji and Tommy; her loving extended family; and her dear friends.
Please feel free to leave comments and memories below. Memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America and the P.E.O. Foundation in Des Moines, Iowa.
Due to the pandemic, a memorial service will take place spring or summer of 2021.
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