My brother Cam gave this speech, along with other observations and stories told extemporaneously, in Florida at Joan's celebration.:

When we grew up in Plainwell, MI, we had two groups of kids in our family: The 4 BIG kids and the 4 Little kids.

The BIG kids were all born during our father’s days in the Navy during WW1 & the Korean Conflict.

There was a 5 year gap between the youngest BIG kid – Becky and the oldest Little kid, Margo.

We little kids were a tight group for the first several years.  Margo, Joan, Pat & I would all get in the bathtub together and all slept in the same bedroom.  As those Big kids started graduating and leaving home, we little kids started spreading out and staking our own turf.  Margo & Joan shared a room as did Pat and I.  From there we spread out even further.

When we were young, I recall Joan being a little bossy.  She let me know how little I knew and I passed this wisdom down to Pat.  We had a definite pecking order.

Margo jogged my memory of Joan’s manic eating of Saltine Crackers in her teens.  She was convinced that they would help her "develop her popularity".  She apparently didn’t eat enough of them.  She needed more vitamin ‘B’.

Joan was always creative.  She bought fabric & patterns and made her own clothes. She tore apart her bluejeans and flared the legs with paisley inserts.

She was the artist of the family and had a real knack for drawing – especially horses.  Later on, Joan stood out from the masses with her toenail and finger nail art.  She was well known for the brightly colored patterns on all 20 of her digits, which changed regularly.  Stripes, spots, pictures, you name it! 

NOBODY else did this type of body artwork at the time.  Along with her natural beauty and long blond hair, she really stood out.  Decades later, the rest of the world took notice and this type of artwork swept the country.  Kits were sold with different polishes, brushes, appliques, glitter etc.

Joan made hundreds of hand painted cards for friends and family for every occasion.  They were kind, thoughtful and typically humorous.  She could have launched her own brand of greeting cards.

There were a lot of boys interested in Joan, although many of them were fearful of being too friendly with Coach Jack Streidl’s daughter.  I infuriated her one day when an odd kid named (withheld) kept walking back and forth in front of the house.  I asked him what he was up to and he asked me if I would introduce him to Joan – which, of course I did.  He bored the heck out of her for the next three hours – just wouldn’t leave.  I don’t know if she ever really forgave me for that indiscretion.

Joan was at WMU while I was at nearby Kalamazoo College my freshman year.  The drinking age was 18 in 1973 (a disastrous social experiment!) and she wanted to take me out on the town.  So I got up the nerve to ask out who I thought was the prettiest girl on campus.  I was surprised when she said ‘Sure’.  Joan and her boyfriend, Jeff Riggin, picked us up and took us to all of the kids bars, where I got stupid on ten cent bar shots and everything else I could pour down my throat.  The night was mostly a blur.  But I remember that when Jeff went around corners fast, the lawn chairs which my date and I had to sit in in the back of his van tipped over – which was kind of cuddly.  They had to pull over a couple of times for me to hurl.  There was no second date for me and Miss Forgotten.  I think it was Joan’s retribution for (withheld).

(Our favorite Joan quote, perhaps, is when Margo spilled some red wine on the leg of some white pants she was wearing.  Joan looked at her and “Looks like you just got a brand new pair of drinkin’ pants!”