Joan H. Conklin

Joan Helen Conklin, age 93, was called home to be with the Lord on March 20, 2026, at North Haven Assisted Living and Memory Care in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, after many years with Alzheimer’s Disease. Joan was born in Paterson, New Jersey, on March 1, 1933. She lived in New Jersey; Ohio; South Carolina; and Marshfield, Wisconsin Rapids, and Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

Joan is survived by her daughter, Wanda (née Conklin) Routier (Donald); son, Thomas Conklin (Julimarie Sommers); grandsons Jacob Conklin and David Routier; granddaughter, Chelsea (née Conklin) Jones (Steven); and four great-grandchildren, Xander, Grady, Eleanor, and Abraham Jones. She was preceded in death by her husband Junior Conklin, parents Thomas and Agnes Young, and her sister Lois Galbreath.

Before she married, Joan worked in a bank in New Jersey. In those days (1950s), when a woman married, she was not allowed to continue to work outside the home, so when Joan married Junior Conklin in 1954 in New Jersey, she became a homemaker. She had two children in the mid-1950s and was a devoted mother. When the children, Wanda and Tom, were teens, Joan returned to work cleaning doctor’s offices. After the children graduated high school Joan and Junior moved to Ohio to be by family and Joan went to work in a retail store, work that she loved. Later they moved to Myrtle Beach, SC by life-long friends and lived there for many years. There, Joan provided childcare for many families, helping to raise generations in some families.

In about 2002, they moved to Wisconsin where Wanda, Don, and David live. While there Joan worked as a special education aide in public schools working with children with disabilities. Joan and Junior made many friends in the Marshfield, WI apartment complex where they lived for 18 years, and were married 70 years when Junior passed away in 2024.

Joan was a lifelong gardener, a hobby her father taught her as a child when they worked their vegetable garden together after the Great Depression and throughout World War II, adding flowers and house plants as an adult. Joan also enjoyed counted cross-stitch and made many child name plaques and beautiful scenes which she gave away to family and friends.

Church was a big part of Joan’s life. For many years in Myrtle Beach she taught young children in Sunday School and loved putting together Bible lessons, crafts, and flannelgraph Bible stories. She often led Bible studies in the apartment complex where she lived in Wisconsin.

Joan enjoyed the friendship of a life-long friend, Josie, who she first met in 3rd grade. Time marched on through getting married, raising their families, becoming grandparents, and other milestones in life. They both eventually moved to Myrtle Beach enjoying their time together, then made other moves to be by their children. They visited each other in person when they could and talked on the phone when they could no longer travel. Still friends to the end, Joan and Josie last spoke on the phone on March 2nd, the day after Joan’s 93rd birthday, and both enjoyed the conversation. Neither could have predicted Joan’s passing nearly three weeks later. Theirs was a rare long and meaningful friendship, each living a long, fulfilling life.

Arrangements were handled by Pisarski Funeral Home in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Services will be held at a later date with internment together with Junior in a veteran’s cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Joan’s name to the Hospice center who cared for her the last few years:

Aspirus Health Foundation Hospice

AAH-Hospice

520 N. 32nd Ave.

Wausau, WI 54401

Or online:

Key Aspirus Health Programs & Priorities

Comfort Care and Hospice Services

https://www.aspirus.org/aspirus-health-foundation

For more information contact Wanda Routier at wroutier@yahoo.com.

Pisarski Funeral Homes are honored to be serving the Conklin Family.