Joan Othellia Hemer, 89, died peacefully on February 8th with her family at her side.

Joan is survived by daughter and son-in-law Janine and Gene Denney of Mancos, CO and daughter and son-in-law Kirsten and Greg Golly of Grapevine, TX and grandson and grand-daughter-in-law Noah and Chelsea Golly of Aubrey, TX. She is predeceased by her husband of 61 years, Win Hemer who passed in 2020.

Joan was raised in Brooklyn, NY and graduated salutatorian from Fort Hamilton High School. Joan was raised in a Norwegian community by parents who had recently emigrated to USA. Her passion for singing began at a very young age and continued through out her life. Joan attended New York University (NYU) and received a B.A. in Music where her love of opera and choral singing blossomed. While attending NYU she met Win and married in1959. Immediately following the wedding they moved to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and lived until 1970 where both of her daughters, Janine and Kirsten, were born. They took advantage of living abroad by traveling all over the world. Joan’s love of language came in handy during their travels since she spoke four languages and understood many more. In 1970 the family moved to Princeton, NJ. where she was very active in their church, sang in the choir and worked at Westminster Choir College. Win was transferred to Dallas in 1982.

In Dallas, Joan worked for many years at Scottish Rite Hospital as a Dyslexia Therapist and sang in the choir at Preston Hollow Presbyterian church for 30 years. A great passion of Joan’s was getting involved with Vickery Meadows at it inception that has now gown into Literacy Achieves. There she taught english as a second language and helped those she taught with everyday life skills needed to live in America. In more recent years, Joan lived at Presbyterian Village North where she met her loving companion, Weldon Brown. Joan had a big heart that she shared with everyone and touched all she met with kindness and grace. She was very proud of her daughters and nothing brought her more pleasure than spending time with her family. She will be missed by all.

A celebration of life service will be held at Presbyterian Village North (PVN) Monie Chapel Saturday, February 15th at 10:30am. Memorial contributions may be made to Literacy Achieves Founded as Vickery Meadows Learning Center.