Life Story for Joan Mann (Bowes)
Obituary – Joan Mann
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our beloved mother, sister, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend, Joan Mann (née Bowes), on Friday September 2nd, 2016 at the South Muskoka Memorial Hospital.
Joan was born in Collingwood on May 28th, 1931 to Clarence (Chum) and Euphemia (Jo) Bowes. The family moved to Muskoka Falls before she started school and Muskoka became her home.
Joan met the love of her life, George, at a dance when they were just teenagers and the two eloped to Toronto in 1949. And so began their life together with an ever- widening circle of friends and family. Winters included curling bonspiels, community theatre, figure skating and hockey games. Summers were spent at the ball field, at the cottage on Skeleton Lake, on the golf course or out in the boat. They remained great dancers together until George’s passing in 1993.
Joan loved people and sales and was a great supporter of the “buy local” movement before there ever was such a thing. She started out at the Thomas Company and later tried her hand at the restaurant business with her mother-in-law, Sadie, at Robbie’s Snack Bar. Joan enjoyed the fashion and style business and remembered fondly both P.D. Murphy Jewellers, and, of course, Garwood’s.
Joan made friends wherever she went. She loved a good story and a bad joke. She loved sports of all sorts – especially track-and-field, baseball, golf and curling. She loved that her grandchildren and great-grandchildren inherited her love of sport. Everyone who knew her will remember her infectious laugh. She loved her family with her whole heart and loved to boast about their exploits and adventures every chance she got.
She loved her girlfriends of the “Ladies’ of the Night” at South Muskoka Curling and Golf Club. Their many (and mostly unprintable) adventures both here and down south made for some very good stories over the years.
Joan was predeceased by her husband, George, parents Chum and Jo Bowes, mother-in-law Sadie, brothers Lyle and Jack, and son-in-law Jon Cooper.
Leaving to miss her and celebrate her life is her wide and extended family: brother Alan, sister Margaret and sisters-in-law Betty, Hazel and Dorothy; son Alan and daughter-in-law Peg (Nevada), son Greg and daughter-in-law Jacqueline (Bracebridge), daughters Stefani (Toronto)and Claudia, and son-in-law Geoff (Halifax); and grandchildren and their spouses: Jamie and Niti (Washington, DC), Jeremy and Marissa (California), Sarah and Harold (Red Bay), Melissa and Jeff, Jessica and Ryan, Britt and Andrew (all of Toronto) and her great-grandchildren: Ana and Ayele (Washington, DC), Kaleb, Emmy, Josh and Ari (California), Teagan and Gabriella, Trinity and Owen (Toronto), and Hanna, William and Christopher (Red Bay).
She will also be greatly missed by a wide and much-loved circle of dear friends and extended family, far and near, including her friends at Oakwood Heights.
The Mann family would like to express deepest gratitude to Dr. Hemmens for his care, especially in the last day, everyone at the South Muskoka Memorial Hospital, and to the staff and residents of the Pines, who welcomed Joan into the community this winter.
The family invites you to join them at the Knox Presbyterian Church in Bracebridge on Tuesday September 13th, 2016. Visitation from 11am to 1pm with a funeral service at 1pm. Joan would want to be remembered with time spent with friends and donations to a charity of your choice.
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our beloved mother, sister, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend, Joan Mann (née Bowes), on Friday September 2nd, 2016 at the South Muskoka Memorial Hospital.
Joan was born in Collingwood on May 28th, 1931 to Clarence (Chum) and Euphemia (Jo) Bowes. The family moved to Muskoka Falls before she started school and Muskoka became her home.
Joan met the love of her life, George, at a dance when they were just teenagers and the two eloped to Toronto in 1949. And so began their life together with an ever- widening circle of friends and family. Winters included curling bonspiels, community theatre, figure skating and hockey games. Summers were spent at the ball field, at the cottage on Skeleton Lake, on the golf course or out in the boat. They remained great dancers together until George’s passing in 1993.
Joan loved people and sales and was a great supporter of the “buy local” movement before there ever was such a thing. She started out at the Thomas Company and later tried her hand at the restaurant business with her mother-in-law, Sadie, at Robbie’s Snack Bar. Joan enjoyed the fashion and style business and remembered fondly both P.D. Murphy Jewellers, and, of course, Garwood’s.
Joan made friends wherever she went. She loved a good story and a bad joke. She loved sports of all sorts – especially track-and-field, baseball, golf and curling. She loved that her grandchildren and great-grandchildren inherited her love of sport. Everyone who knew her will remember her infectious laugh. She loved her family with her whole heart and loved to boast about their exploits and adventures every chance she got.
She loved her girlfriends of the “Ladies’ of the Night” at South Muskoka Curling and Golf Club. Their many (and mostly unprintable) adventures both here and down south made for some very good stories over the years.
Joan was predeceased by her husband, George, parents Chum and Jo Bowes, mother-in-law Sadie, brothers Lyle and Jack, and son-in-law Jon Cooper.
Leaving to miss her and celebrate her life is her wide and extended family: brother Alan, sister Margaret and sisters-in-law Betty, Hazel and Dorothy; son Alan and daughter-in-law Peg (Nevada), son Greg and daughter-in-law Jacqueline (Bracebridge), daughters Stefani (Toronto)and Claudia, and son-in-law Geoff (Halifax); and grandchildren and their spouses: Jamie and Niti (Washington, DC), Jeremy and Marissa (California), Sarah and Harold (Red Bay), Melissa and Jeff, Jessica and Ryan, Britt and Andrew (all of Toronto) and her great-grandchildren: Ana and Ayele (Washington, DC), Kaleb, Emmy, Josh and Ari (California), Teagan and Gabriella, Trinity and Owen (Toronto), and Hanna, William and Christopher (Red Bay).
She will also be greatly missed by a wide and much-loved circle of dear friends and extended family, far and near, including her friends at Oakwood Heights.
The Mann family would like to express deepest gratitude to Dr. Hemmens for his care, especially in the last day, everyone at the South Muskoka Memorial Hospital, and to the staff and residents of the Pines, who welcomed Joan into the community this winter.
The family invites you to join them at the Knox Presbyterian Church in Bracebridge on Tuesday September 13th, 2016. Visitation from 11am to 1pm with a funeral service at 1pm. Joan would want to be remembered with time spent with friends and donations to a charity of your choice.