| Joan Elizabeth Davis Grant was born December 21, 1927 in Aberdeen, Scotland to Joan Felice Joyner Lawrence, a registered OR Nurse, and Ronald Kirkham Grant, MD, M.B., ChB, the highest surgeons degree. As a small child, she had lived in Argentina, Venezuela, and British Guiana. When she was four, her father left the family of six never to be heard from again. He died at sea while working as a ship doctor. In Scotland, her grandmother cared for her and her older sister, Roneen, til she could rejoin her mother and younger brother and sister, Jock and Helen. To travel to her mother, Joan, age eight, rode the train alone to England. Joan cherished her mother, she said “she was kind, gentle, never complained, criticized, swore or never spoke negatively of her father.” At age fourteen, Joan earned a scholarship to the most prestigious women’s college in England, The Lady Eleanor Holles School for Girls in Middlesex. While in school, Joan and her siblings were occasionally shepherded calmly into their underground air raid shelter in their backyard to wait out German bombing raids. One time when they emerged, they learned their neighbors had been evacuated due to an unexploded bomb sitting in the tree above their shelter. No one knew they were still in the underground shelter. Joan went on to graduate from Stenography school as a secretary. She worked a few years, then at age twenty-one, married and was brought to the United States where she became a naturalized citizen in 1950. She divorced from a rocky marriage a year later, after being left without money that was given to her by her mother. Shortly after, in Las Vegas, she fell head over hills for a bartender while working as a cocktail hostess, they married and had three children, Paul, Roneen, and Christopher. Roneen died after two weeks, Paul left with his father, and being divorced again, Joan sought various jobs to support her son, Christopher. Her jobs varied from being a hostess on Braniff Airlines to executive secretary for television and hotel heads, to a long lucrative career selling residential and commercial real estate. She then moved to San Diego, California. She remained in San Diego until she moved to North Carolina in 2000 to live closer to Christopher and his family. She lived on her own is several apartments until her health declined in 2007 at which time she moved in with her son Christopher and his family for her care. During this time, medical issues necessitated the removal of most of her right leg. In 2011, it was prudent for her to receive skilled nursing care at White Oak Manor in Shelby where she remained until her quick and peaceful passing on February 27, 2012. Joan was concerned for the welfare of all she came in contact with. She liked Judge Judy, tea in the mornings to start her day off right and chocolates. Her general life philosophy was the “golden rule”. She associated herself in her heart with the Church of England. If you told her you loved her,she would always say back to you “I love you more”. She will be deeply missed. Services for Joan will be private.
FUNERAL HOME: Clay-Barnette Funeral Home of Shelby
ONLINE CONDOLENCES: www.claybarnette.com
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