Joan C. Fischer

Joan Fischer went home to be with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Sunday, August 15, 2021 and is at last well again and at peace in mind and body. What a joyful reunion she must have had with her husband Harold and the rest of her family!

Joan was born on September 21, 1934 in Garden City, Kansas, the daughter of Rev. Walter J. F. and Bertha (Tuchtenhagen) Lebien, who lived in Deerfield, Kansas at the time where her father was pastor at Immanual Lutheran Church, joining her two older sisters Jeanette and Della. In 1942 the family moved to Las Vegas, New Mexico and spent a few years there during WWII while her father was pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church. The family loved their time in New Mexico, but the effect of high altitude on her mother’s blood pressure necessitated a move back to Kansas. Her father accepted a call to Zion Lutheran Church in Herkimer, Kansas in 1946 where Joan completed her schooling, graduating from Marysville High School in 1952. Joan took piano lessons as a child and played the organ in her father’s church in Herkimer for many years. She also played the French horn in the Marysville High School band. Being raised as the daughter of a Lutheran pastor had a profound influence on her life, and she was blessed with a firm foundation of faith in Jesus Christ to which she clung, lived out, and helped pass on to her children and grandchildren. She enjoyed the special privilege of being baptized, confirmed, and married by her father.

Soon after graduation she became a legal secretary for an attorney in Marysville. In 1954 she met Harold Fischer at a Lutheran softball game. He had recently returned from his time in the U.S. Army and had started a job with Bremen Farmers Mutual Insurance Company in Bremen, Kansas. His good looks and outgoing personality attracted the attention of many of the local girls. As a result, though she accepted his initial request for a date, she stood him up as she didn’t want to be “just another one of the many girls” who were after him. Thankfully, he persisted and she actually went out with him the second time he asked and the rest is history. They were married on July 8, 1956 and were devoted to one another for more than 56 years of marriage, until his passing in 2012. They raised four daughters (Lori, Kelley, Peggy, and Becky) while Harold’s career in insurance took them from Bremen, Kansas to McPherson, Kansas, then Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Dallas, Texas, Austin, Texas, back to Dallas, and finally back to Austin for good in 1976 when Harold became a partner in an insurance agency, later taking it over and forming an insurance company as well.

During the years of raising a family, Joan frequently held both part-time and full-time administrative jobs. Her two favorites were her time as a medical secretary in Dallas for Dr. John Cheek, a dermatologist, and her job as a secretary in the Chemical Engineering Department of Radian Corporation in Austin. Harold and Joan’s lives centered around their church in each place they lived and they were very active in each congregation, holding many volunteer positions as well as enjoying social activities (Grace Lutheran-McPherson, Messiah Lutheran-Oklahoma City, Holy Cross and Zion Lutheran, Dallas, and Redeemer Lutheran-Austin).

The school and extra-curricular activities of their four daughters kept them extremely busy as well. Joan was a wonderful mother, devoting herself to her husband and daughters, putting their needs ahead of her own. She created a warm and loving home. The smells of homemade bread, chocolate chip cookies, and Sunday roast beef are imprinted on our minds and in our hearts. Joan sewed her own and her daughters’ clothes for many years, and we cherish all the photos of our Christmas, Easter, and first-day-of-school dresses. She was both mother and friend to her daughters. She was devoted to her grandchildren, Justin, Megan, Josh, Kyle, and Nicole and loved her sons-in-law Brent and Kelly very much.

In the early years of marriage and raising a family, Joan and Harold always made sure to take the family on summer vacations, driving various places around the U.S. and to Canada when her sister and husband moved back there from England. She was adventurous enough to learn to ski when she was in her 40s! Joan and Harold were blessed to travel both the United States and other parts of the world extensively, enjoying motor homes they owned, cruises, plane trips, and car trips. For sixteen years they owned a vacation home in Keystone, Colorado providing their grandchildren with the privilege of spending ski vacations there in the winter and summer vacations hiking and enjoying all that the Rocky Mountains have to offer. Their lovely home that they built in Austin in 1987 was the frequent and joyful gathering place for all of their grandchildren’s growing-up years, and they will all cherish memories of Grandpa and Grandma’s love, family traditions, holidays, summers around the pool, family trips, and so much more.

Joan worked very hard to care for Harold during his journey with Parkinson’s, and then she herself walked a difficult path with Alzheimer’s, lasting many years. We are grateful knowing they are both well and together again.

Joan was preceded in death by her parents, Rev. Walter and Bertha (Tuchtenhagen) Lebien, her sisters Jeanette (Lebien) Hormann and Della (Lebien) Winger and her husband Rev. Dr. Roger Winger. She is survived by her daughters Lori Fischer, Kelley (Fischer) Southwell and husband Brent, Peggy (Fischer) Joseph and husband Kelly, Becky Fischer, and grandchildren Justin Treat and his wife Martha Lauren with their daughter Randa, Megan Joseph and her fiancé Daniel Penney, Joshua Warrington Hernandez and his wife Hillary, Kyle Joseph and his wife Hayleigh with their daughter Amelia, and Nicole Southwell and her wife Alexandra with their daughter Margot, as well as many nieces and nephews from her sister Della and her husband Rev. Dr. Roger Winger in Canada and from Harold’s family.

We wish to thank the staff of Belmont Village, Hunters Creek in Houston, Texas for their 24-hour care of Joan during the last years of her life. In Houston in her final years, Joan was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church (Downtown).

Services will take place on Monday, August 30, 2021. A graveside service will be held at 10:00 a.m. at Cook-Walden/Capital Parks Cemetery, 14501 N Interstate Hwy 35, Pflugerville, TX 78660. The memorial service will follow at 11:30 a.m. at Redeemer Lutheran Church, 1500 W. Anderson Lane, Austin, TX 78757. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Redeemer Lutheran Church.