Joan Weigold

Strong, funny and adventurous were a few ways Joan Weigold's family could describe her. She was an intelligent gal who had a feisty side to her and was fearless. Joan lived her life to its fullest and experienced many wonderful things including a loving family and being able to travel around the world and teaching others in several countries.

With the first regular schedule of television programming beginning, 1928 also saw the first machine-sliced and machine-wrapped loafs of bread being sold. With much of the country still talking about the First Trans-Atlantic Flight, aviator Amelia Earhart started her attempt to become the first woman to successfully cross the Atlantic Ocean. That year held even more exciting news for Burl John and Gladys D. (Mauger) Best as they announced the news of welcoming their second child into their family. On July 17, 1928, Dorothy Joan Best was born in Huntington, Indiana.

Joan along with her older sister June and younger brother Robert moved around a few times by the time she was a teenager. While growing up, she and her family attended St. Peters Evangelical Church in Huntington. She participated in Rural Youth and enjoyed roller skating, dancing and spending time at her family's lake cottage on Big Lake north of Columbia City in Noble County. Following her graduation from Huntington High School with the Class of 1946, Joan met a young man that would change her life forever.

While Joan was vacationing at Big Lake, Herbert A. Weigold spotted her and began talking to her. Some boys would try whistling at Joan to get her attention, but Herbert was different and asked her to go dancing and to go skating. He would eventually win her heart and the two were married on May 14, 1949 in Huntington. With her parent's owning the lease on Green Gables, the newlyweds moved there for the summer and then to Chauncey Street in Columbia City. They would eventually build a house on his parents' farm property also located in rural Columbia City of Noble County. By 1953, they built a garage to live in before building the house that they would plan to raise their children in and spend the rest of their lives at.

Joan and Herb welcomed four children into their hearts and home; John, Peggy, Brian and Sally. As a family, they attended Merriam Christian Chapel. While her children were becoming teenagers, Joan began college to become a teacher. She attended Indiana University and Saint Francis, earning a Master's Degree in education. She taught at Thorncreek Township for 17 years. During this time, she had read about the Department of Defense needing teachers and for two years she taught in Germany. After retirement, she still had a need to help educate others and would teach in Iceland and on two occasions teach in China.

Traveling and dancing were just a few things that Joan and Herb loved to do. Even after his passing in 1990, Joan continued to travel. Over her life time she took 24 trips to Europe. During several of these trips, she took her grandchildren individually with her. For several years, she would escape the Indiana winters and spend six weeks in Mexico. She was very active, enjoyed taking bicycling trips, tending to her gardens, drawing, sketching, painting and doing photography.

Over the years Joan journaled about her daily life, took great pride in doing her family genealogy and was a heck of a storyteller. Joan was involved with the Red Hat Strutters and a member of the Indiana Retired Teachers Association. She also volunteered as a docent for Merry Lea Environmental Learning.

With as many ups that she had experienced, Joan not only had the experience and heartache of losing her husband, but she experienced the loss of her sons, Brian Weigold in April of 2014 and John Weigold in October of 2014. She also was preceded in death by her parents, Burl and Gladys Best; brother, Robert Best; and sister, June Nowels.

Life was never the same for Joan after the loss of her two sons and at 11:50 a.m. on Monday, January 27, 2020, her family's lives would forever change when Joan Weigold, age 91, passed away peacefully at home with her daughters by her side. She is survived by her two loving daughters, Peggy (Kerry) McCarthy of Columbia City and Sally (Dana) Charette of Acton, California; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

A gathering of family and friends will be 5-7 p.m. Friday, January 31, 2020 and Saturday from 1-5 p.m. at DeMoney-Grimes Funeral Home, 600 Countryside Drive, Columbia City. Celebration of Life will be 1 p.m. Sunday at the funeral home. Memorial gifts may be given in her memory to the Woodland Senior Center or to the Peabody Public Library. Visit www.demoneygrimes.com to send family her family condolences online.