Joan Lucille Johnson's Obituary
Joan Lucille Johnson was a dear wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend. She was born to John and Lucille Elizabeth Fries on December 07, 1938, at home on the family farm, in Hayes Township, Iowa, and she passed from this life on March 30, 2022, in Tulsa, after she fell and broke her hip, and then contracted pneumonia. She is with her Savior in heaven now.
Joan graduated from Ida Grove High School. She then moved to Sioux City, Iowa, to attend Brown's Business School. During this time, she met the love of her life, Hardy Johnson, on a blind date. Joan and Hardy dated for a year and a half, then they married in an Iowa blizzard at the Arthur Baptist Church. Despite their snowy start, they enjoyed 63 years of love and wedded bliss. Hardy's time in the Air Force took the couple from Sioux City, Iowa, to Maryland; then, they finally landed in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was there they made their home for over 60 years.
Joan was the secretary for Parkland Baptist Church in Tulsa. When Joan became a mother to Kurt and Lynn, she worked from home for several years. Later she used her skills as a seamstress and alteration expert at the local alteration shop, followed a local department store, sewing on hundreds of clothing items and tailoring countless suits. She finished her career as the alteration specialist at Stein Mart in Tulsa. Retiring freed her up to travel, visit family, snow ski, play Bunco and Dominoes, and volunteer at her church. At the age of 60, she and Hardy were vacationing in Tucson with her sister, and heading to ski the slopes in Colorado, when Joan had a brain aneurysm. She was not expected to live, but she did. After two brain surgeries and months in a coma, Joan was medevaced home to Tulsa through the donations of friends, and lovingly rehabbed back to health by her sweetheart, Hardy. They enjoyed 23 more years of wedded bliss, and Joan was surrounded by her family when she passed on March 30.
Joan is survived by her husband, Hardy Johnson of Broken Arrow, OK; her daughter Lynn Presson of Fort Worth, TX; her grandchildren Heather Meeks of Broken Arrow, OK, Reece Presson of Richmond, KY, Addie Presson New York, NY, Avery of New York, NY, and Ross Presson of Fort Worth, TX; her great grandchildren, Cameron Sellers, Brookelynn Martin, Breonna Martin, all of Broken Arrow, OK, and Elliot Presson-Horn, of Richmond, KY; her brother, Harlan Fries, and his wife Joan Fries, of Ida Grove, IA, and her brother-in-law, Eddie Johnson, Of Woodville, TX, and dearly beloved cousins, nieces, and nephews she adored. Joan was preceded in death by her beloved son, Kurt Johnson, her parents, John and Lucille Fries, her brother, Stanley Fries, her sister, Beverly Fries Winquist, and her son-in-law, Tim Presson.
Visitation will be held, 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM, Thursday, April 07, 2022, Floral Haven Visitation Suites, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
A Celebration of Life Service will be held 1:00 PM, Friday, April 08, 2022, First Baptist Church of Broken Arrow, 100 W. Albany, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
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