Joan Hoey

Joan M. Hoey was born June 18th, 1937 as the only child of Mamie and Wally Desmond on the south side of Chicago at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, Illinois. She was treasured by her parents and they called her Joanie. The trio played golf at least twice a week as soon as her dad got home from work. They traveled out to Utah where her dad bought sheep for the Chicago Stockyards. Saturday early evenings was going to the movies night. She grew up a regular kid roller skating in the basement and ice skating on the flooded vacant lot next door. She had fond memories of going to her grandma’s kitchen and the big table where they would make strudels and walking with the whole extended family home from Christmas Eve Mass when it was snowing. She took piano lessons and could really play the Boogie Woogie tunes with the left hand pumping out the beat. She went to Lourdes High School. She met Bill Hoey who went to St. Rita High School. Bill had a car and would take her and her girlfriends for rides around the neighborhood. They married when they were only 20 years old on November 2nd 1957 at St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church in Chicago. They honeymooned in Miami Beach and had to show their marriage license to the hotel staff since they looked so young. She loved being Mrs. William V. Hoey. Bill was an electrician in the 134 Electrical Union and Joan was a secretary at Talman Federal Savings and Loan at 55th and Kedzie living in an apartment nearby. They had their first child Elisabeth and moved to a new house in Oak Lawn, Illinois and had three more children: Edward, Ellyn and Richard. Joan was a full-time wife and stay-at-home mom. She was president of the PTA, a Picture Lady and organized carnivals for fundraising for the schools. She bowled, played golf and had a great group of neighborhood girlfriends with New Year’s Eve parties down in the basements on a rotating basis. While their children were still in school Joan and Bill built and moved to a home in the Ishnala subdivision in Palos Heights, Illinois. Joan was very active in the Palos Heights Women’s Club one year being their president and loved her friends in the Palos Heights Book Club. As their children aged Bill bought a Corvette and they traveled through the United States. Joan traveled to Paris, France with her book club friends and some of her fondest memories were of that trip with them and also their trip later to visit her in Scottsdale, AZ. With all their children grown, Joan wanted to move to Scottsdale, Arizona. They bought a condo, then a small house and then a big house with a pool and a view of Camelback Mountain that her and Bill enjoyed to the end. Joan had a flair for interior decorating. She absolutely loved decorating the condo and house they moved up from and renting them out to Snowbirds. Reading, clothes shopping and her grandchildren were her interests later in life. They had six grandchildren: Chance, Ryan, Olivia, Camden, Jessica and Blake whom Joan enjoyed taking care of and spoiling them. Her colon cancer diagnosis in August 2025 was a surprise. She did not surrender. She did not go quietly into the night. She fought to stay here till her last breath. To those who really knew Joan they will not be surprised. Our heart breaks with her death. She was loved and will be missed always.