Joan Frances Barr

Joan Frances Barr passed away on September 4, 2023 at the age of 90. She was born on May 19, 1933 to Priscilla Winsberg.

Joan was born in Green Bay, WI and lived there until the age of thirteen when she moved with her family to Milwaukee. Joan graduated from Nathan Hale High School in 1951. During her time in high school, she was a majorette in the band and was homecoming queen.

Joan met the love of her life and future husband, Don Barr, through a mutual group of friends through church. Joan loved the Lord and the foundation for her life was her faith. Don and Joan were married on July 20, 1952. In the following eight years they had six children, 3 boys and 3 girls. They lived in Wisconsin, Missouri and then back to Wisconsin before they moved and settled in Phoenix, AZ in August 1963.

Joan was fortunate to stay home with the family until she went back to school in later years to study art and then graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education from Arizona State University. Joan’s hobbies were art, reading, taking care of her grandchildren, and collecting Precious Moments. She enjoyed traveling, which included many cross-country road trips with Don and the kids; and going on cruises and many international trips.

Joan is survived by loving children - Dale Kvittem-Barr (Barb), Keith Barr (Doris), Brian Barr (Tang), Leanne Larkins (Ken), Laurie Johnson (Paul); 14 grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren, sister - Nancy Parra (Ferdie), half-brother Bill Erdman (Helen Netos), half-sister Sarita Woodrum (Rod). She was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Don and her precious daughter, Karen Glaser (Clark).

A Celebration of Life in Joan’s honor will be held on Saturday, September 23, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. at Phoenix Memorial Park & Mortuary, 200 West Beardsley Road. Phoenix, Arizona 85027.

FAMILY MEMORIES read by Megan Nielsen at Celebration of Life

She is known by many names, Joan, mom, wife, sister, Grandma Joan, and Nana. She was famous for many things in her life, having six kids under the age of 7, having 14 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren, never being on time, talking your ear off on the phone, giving long hugs, and offering advice to name just a few.

One of the most talked about memories is when Don and Joan packed 6 kids, luggage and themselves into a small 1960 Rambler station wagon and drove across the country to move to Phoenix. Dale remembers the day they arrived in Phoenix it was August and 110 degrees outside his dad was trying to find the rental house along a dusty dirt road and not having any luck. While Don drove back and forth looking for the house, Dale remembers his mom passing out water and wet wash cloths to all the kids to try to keep everyone cool. She was also crying and asking Don “why would Uncle Loyd do this” to them and move them to such a hot dry place in the middle of nowhere. They all eventually fell in love with this hot dry place and called it home for the rest of their lives.

She was very affectionate with her love and was one of the best huggers, but the hugs were never short. Just ask Nick who she purposely sought out to hug and hug and hug some more. She never forgot a birthday and either sent you a card, called to chat with you or she left you a heartfelt voicemail. I know I will miss those phone calls and will keep all her voicemails she left me so that when I am having a tough day I can relisten to how much she loved me to bring my spirits up. She loved to talk and when you saw her phone number pop up on caller ID you knew it wouldn’t be a short call, you would try to end the conversation and even say goodbye but then she would always have just one more question and the conversation would extend longer.

At her 90th birthday she enjoyed watching her great grand babies run around playing and loved watching them dig into her cake. She was overjoyed to see everyone on her special day and to be able celebrate with them.

She shared special moments with her great grandchildren such as the time that Dylan went to say goodbye to Grandma Joan, he held her hand, kissed her forehead, gave her hugs, and told her that he loved her and would miss her. While the Chaplin prayed with Grandma Joan, Dylan was right by her side repeating the prayer close to her so that she didn’t miss a word of the prayer. When Nana met her great granddaughter lily for the first time, she was all smiles and seemed to gain superhuman strength that day to hold Lily who was 12 pounds at the time. Lily gave her a kiss and they put their foreheads together and clearly shared a special bond.

She had a knack for making people feel special when she talked with them. Dana’s last memory of Grandma was at Stephanies wedding, she had forgotten Dana’s name and referred to her as Karen’s Daughter, which made Dana feel super special. She gave good advice even if we didn’t always listen to her. My favorite memory of her was the Mother’s Day she met Nick. She gave him a hug of course, talked his ear off and welcomed him into our family with open arms. Later, after we ate, she cornered me and told me that he was handsome and wanted to know when I was going to marry him. I laughed and said “one day Nana, one day” to that she said do it soon because he cute and I shouldn’t let him slip away. She said she could see that we were meant to be, and she was right, we are still happily married 16 years later.

FAMILY MEMORIES read by Stephanie Tso at Celebration of Life

We know she had love for her little dogs… especially the one we all just adored so much… Coco also known as Pita (Pain In The Arse) to some of us. She would get silly mad when we would call that dog by its rightful nickname. She loved that Yorkie, in fact so much that when I got my little one, Packer, she was sure to clip out any picture of a Yorkie from a newspaper, magazine, whatever it may be and give it to me with excitement. She loved to collect… everything whether it had importance or not, but, to her it had importance. As Brittany says, we could remember walking into their house on Sierra Pinta and there would be a box of items (or just every item laid out on the table) and she made sure you got to go through it all and take something you wanted.

She had a love for spoiling us in the simplest of ways. Whether it was the tin of cookies she always kept on the top of the fridge for us, getting us little gifts for every holiday, trips in the RV, or as Tyler remembers at 15 years old, going to a Green Bay Packers game at Lambeau Field with them following with a beer tour at Miller Brewery with Nana sneaking him sips of beer while Papa was not looking.

Leanne remembers her Mom sometimes handling their mischief with stride. For instance, when one of the kids got mad at another and threw a baseball at him, he ducked, and the ball went through the large plate glass window. That not to be named “Child” (mmmm Leanne) did not get in trouble because her defense was that he should not have ducked. Or the times the boys would come in late by coasting down the street with their lights off only to find their Mom waiting in the dark for them.

But then again, sometimes they were not so easily able to get away with it… there is a little story of how Laurie was grounded but really wanted to go to an away football game. She told her mom she was taking out the trash and hopped into a vehicle and headed on over to the game. Not knowing that her twin saw her and called their mother to tell on her, Laurie arrived home, knocking on the window to have Leanne let her in….. low and behold there was her mother waiting for her. Unfortunately, this time, she was not so patient with one of her children’s mischief, instead Laurie was told she is not allowed in the house and had to sleep in her car. You could say that sounded pretty harsh but after bearing 6 children, you can only imagine how much patience that woman had to endure.

And for the most well-known memory to us ALL… her punctuality. Whether it was waiting a whole week to name her twin girls, or any event we had. When a family event started at 5pm, she was told it was 4pm so she would arrive hopefully by 530. Something that drove us bonkers but has and always will remain a good laugh. She earned the right to live her life and make decisions in her own time. There were times it came to an advantage. As Mikayla remembers taking a camping trip with Nana and Papa and the family… they were unable to get out of the mud and forced to miss school and work. That may have seemed like just bad luck that day, but when Nana was around… there was no being on time. It simply worked out to give them an extra day to spend time together and makes for more memories.

We can all agree that she was the “Queen” of this family and the memories she created for us to have and share and are simply priceless. The biggest memory we can all share together is the endless amount of Love she had for us, and we can hold on to that forever and ever.

TRAIN OF LIFE poem by Jean d'Ormesson was read by Doris Barr at Celebration of Life.

At birth, we boarded the train of life and met our parents, and we believed that they would always travel by our side. However, at some station, our parents would step down from the train, leaving us on life's journey alone.

As time goes by, some significant people will board the train siblings, other children, friends, and even the love of our life.

Many will step down and leave a permanent vacuum. Others will go so unnoticed that we won't realize that they vacated their seats! This train ride has been a mixture of joy, sorrow, fantasy, expectations, hellos, goodbyes, and farewells.

A successful journey consists of having a good relationship with all passengers, requiring that we give the best of ourselves. The mystery that prevails is that we do not know at which station we ourselves will step down. Thus, we must try to travel along the track of life in the best possible way - loving, forgiving, giving, and sharing.

When the time comes for us to step down and leave our seat empty - we should leave behind beautiful memories for those who continue to travel on the train of life. Let’s remember to thank our Creator for giving us life to participate in this journey. I close by thanking all of you – friends and family, for being one of the passengers on Joan’s train!