JoAnn Burch, 92, of North Manchester, Indiana, formerly of Wabash and Indianapolis, Indiana died Sunday, November 19, 2023, at Timbercrest Retirement Community in North Manchester. She was born on March 19, 1931, in North Manchester, to Frank and Juanita (Pullin) Johnson.
JoAnn was a 1949 graduate of Central High School in North Manchester, and received her B.S in Home Economics Education from Purdue University in 1953. She married Robert Burch in North Manchester on August 24, 1952; he died July 10, 2022. After JoAnn’s marriage, she lived in the Lafayette, Lapaz, Shipshewana, North Manchester, and Indianapolis communities before retiring and moving to Wabash in 1990. JoAnn was a homemaker and enjoyed working to improve and remodel the family homes. She was also a substitute teacher for many years. JoAnn taught elementary art a semester at Shipshewana and Home Economics a semester at Our Lady of Grace Academy in Beech Grove. JoAnn worked three years at JC Penney and ten years as an assistant to the engineering department at General Devices. She was a home health aide for Kelly Assisted Living for two years.
JoAnn was active as a 4-H member as a youth, and served as a 4-H leader for seven years at Tippecanoe, Marshall, and Marion counties.She helped her husband and children raise and show livestock, and she also won Pork and Lamb cooking contests at the State Fair. JoAnn had a lifelong interest in art, and won many champions at the Wabash County Fair. She was particularly pleased to have her greeting cards sold as far away as Scotland. A project in her later years has been to write and illustrate the story of her life as a legacy to her children and grandchildren. She also wrote stories and poems for children.
She considered her hardest, but most important job was nursing her family and husband through many illnesses, some very serious and chronic, even if it meant giving up many of her personal goals and dreams. JoAnn was a member of the Wabash Friends Church and was active in the United Society of Friends Women. A member of Farm Bureau Inc., she served on the county board several years. JoAnn was also a Red Cross Volunteer and delivered Meals on Wheels.
She is survived by four children, Sharon Burch of Lawrence, Kansas, Kenneth Burch of Austin, Texas, Carolyn (Randy) Jones of Rancho Santa Fe, California, and Steven Burch of Amherst, New York; four grandchildren, Adria Pickett, Andrew Burch, Nicholas Burch, and Janell (R.J.) Pomeroy; two great grandchildren, Declan and Sloan Pomeroy; and two sisters, Sally Cosby of Melbourne, Florida, and Jacqueline Wilson of Edmond, Oklahoma. She was also preceded in death by her parents, brother, Max Johnson, and her sister, Bonnie Woodworth.
Memorial services will be 3pm Monday, November 27, 2023 at the Timbercrest Retirement Community Chapel, 2201 N. East Street, North Manchester, with David Phillips officiating. Inurnment will be at a later date in Falls Cemetery, Wabash. Arrangements by Grandstaff-Hentgen Funeral Service, Wabash.
The memorial guest book for JoAnn may be signed at www.grandstaff-hentgen.com.
To send a flower arrangement or to plant trees in memory of JoAnn Burch, please click here to visit our Sympathy Store.