Beyond the South End

Hey, Joan, Come Bomb the Rotary with us!

We lost one of our regular DeSoto passengers this past week. Joan LaFrance, nee Knowlton, of the Ingraham Hill Knowltons, left this world and left a big void behind.

These pictures encompass some of my most favorite memories of Joan. I spent many happy hours with she and her sisters down in Owls Head and Joan and I shared many happy times at Rockland High School on Lincoln Street in the Class of 1959.

 

I remember playing basketball with her; of traveling with her and the class to Washington D.C. for our senior class trip and she trying to pack her petticoats in her suitcase to come home again.

Most of all, I remember her laugh and the good times we had with Sandra Sleeper, Violet Carr, and Pat Graves, as we bombed the rotary of a Friday night looking for boys to chase. When I return home I think I’ll gather the gang and make one last lap of the rotary in her memory.

 

This is Joan’s 1959 Rockland High School Yearbook picture, (the Cauldron). Above her picture it says: “Jo…always good words, never bad. Always happy, never sad.”

 

This is our high school basketball picture. Joan is in the back row, third from the right.

 

This is one of my favorite pictures of Joan and the gang.  Here we sit in my mother’s living room on Fulton Street in our graduation dresses. I think Mama had a party for us after the ceremonies. Joan is in the front row on the left with Priscilla (Andy) Smith next to her. On the couch left to right are: Violet Carr, Pat Graves, me, Dottie Childs, and Sandra Sleeper. I’m using maiden names here.

This is her obit as found online at Village Soup:

Warren--Joan Knowlton LaFrance, 73, died Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014, at Miles Medical Center in Damariscotta, following an extended illness.

Born in Owls Head Sept. 5, 1941, she was the daughter of David O. and Margaret Everett Knowlton. She attended the Ingraham Hill School in Owls Head and was a 1959 graduate of Rockland High School. While in high school, she enjoyed playing basketball and was very good at it. Throughout her life she was an accomplished seamstress, sewing many of her family’s clothes. She loved the ocean and swimming and enjoyed entertaining at her pool in Cushing. Ice skating was one of her favorites, along with listening to music and collecting Disney movies. She had recently taken a trip with her family to Walt Disney World.

While working at the former F.W. Woolworth & Co. in Rockland, Joan met Wilmer ‘Kit’ LaFrance, beginning a romance that would last a lifetime. The couple was married Oct. 28, 1962.

In pursuit of her husband’s employment as a sales manager, they lived in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Returning to Owls Head, they made their first home on Knowlton Avenue, where they raised their family. In 1988, they moved to Cushing, where they built their dream home on Lovers Lane.

For many years, Joan worked side by side with her husband. They owned and operated Waldoboro Five & Ten, the Remnant Rug Rack in Rockland and Kit’s Carpets in Cushing. In recent years, she resided in Jefferson and for the past 18 months, lived with her daughter and son-in-law, Loretta and Randy Hooper.

Joan was a devoted mother and grandmother, who, more than anything, enjoyed spending time with her family. This included many happy hours at the LaFrance family cottage on Crawford Pond.

She enjoyed knitting and loved to travel and go on cruises. She had a special place in her heart for her dogs, Tasha and Haley. Her family remembered her wonderful cooking and said they particularly enjoyed her mac and cheese and sheet cakes. Holidays and Christmas were special times for Joan and she enjoyed decorating her home for each holiday.

Joan was looking forward with excitement to the birth of her 11th grandchild, due in May.

Other than her parents, Joan was predeceased by her husband, Kit, in 2005; her son Christopher M. La France in 2014; a brother, David O. Knowlton, II; and three sisters, Marion Robbins, Barbara Deabler and Linda Stanley.

She is survived by a son, Scott J. LaFrance, and his wife, Shanon, of Cushing; four daughters, Loretta S. Hooper and her husband, Randall, of Warren, Liz L. Warren and her companion, Steve Chase, of Rockport, Jennifer M. LaFrance and her companion, Mark Eugley, of Damariscotta, and Amy E. Tarbox and her husband, Matt, of Falmouth; 10 grandchildren, Sammantha, Krista, Jared, Allison, Brady, Evan, Cadence, Meggan, Tyler and Bentley; a great-grandchild, MacKenzie; three sisters and their husbands, Betty and Oliver Curtis of Owls Head, Judith and William McCoy of Belmont, N.H., Brenda and Greg Kaler of South Thomaston; as well as many nieces and nephews.

A celebration of Joan’s life will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 17, at Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home, 110 Limerock St., Rockland.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Multiple System Atrophy Coalition, 9935-D Rea Road, No. 212, Charlotte, NC 28277, or the American Heart Association, 51 US Route One, Suite M, Scarborough, ME 04074.

To share a memory or condolence with Joan’s family, visit her Book of Memories at bchfh.com.