JOANN ELIZABETH COLE 1944 – 2023

Joann Elizabeth Schoonmaker Cole, 78, passed into her next life on Thursday, August 31, 2023.

Joann was born in DeKalb, Illinois on October 13, 1944, to Ralph Ellis and Thelma Hulda Haithcoat Schoonmaker. She was the youngest of three daughters. Her childhood and early adult years were spent in Illinois. Joann graduated from Genoa (Illinois) High School and later attended Blinn Junior College.

Joann worked various positions through the years from waitress to cashier to highway construction flagger to security guard but the position she held the longest and was most remembered for was as a park ranger at Gibbons Creek Reservoir. She was a baptized Christian who worshipped for many years with the Baptist Church and the Church of Christ.

Joann met Roy Glenn Cole after his return from Vietnam in 1968 and married him on February 28, 1969. Soon after they moved to Texas where his family resided. They were married for almost 47 years before his death in 2016. Their marriage was blessed with two daughters.

Joann was preceded in death by her beloved spouse; her parents; sister, Frances Jean Schoonmaker Olson; brothers-in-law, Vern Johnson, Harold Olson, and John Cole; sistersin- law, Geneva Newcomb Cole and Jean Olson.

She is survived by daughters and sons-in-law, Tammy Lynn and Allen Sanford of Iola and Beth Ann and Billy Kessinger of Shiro; sister, Norah Johnson of Naperville, Illinois; brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Larry and Lynn Cole of Bedias; six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren with two more on the way; numerous aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews and many loving friends.

Funeral services will be 10:00 a.m. Saturday, September 9, 2023, at Day Funeral Home in Madisonville, Texas, with internment at Bedias Methodist Cemetery.

Flowers are welcome or in lieu of flowers, a donation to the Iola Church of Christ or charity of your choice.