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Joan A Whitehead
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Keith & Keith Funeral Home
YAKIMA - After a brief hospitalization, Joan Adelaide Whitehead, surrounded by her loving family, died on June 22, 2009, at the age of 89. She was born in Aldermaston, Berkshire, England, on March 30, 1920. She was the eldest of three children born to Charles H. Maggs and Annie Jarrett Maggs. Joan and her parents, and later her brother Kenneth and sister Barbara, lived in the village of Lyminge in Kent, England.
Joan attended schools in Lyminge and in Folkestone as a girl, and received her degree in Childhood Education from St Katherine's College in London. Among the extracurricular activities she enjoyed growing up were playing the piano and the organ. She was an accomplished musician, and she won various awards and medals in piano performance and accompanying. She accompanied at a ballet school, and she was an active member of the tennis club and the table tennis club in her local village.
In 1939 WWII began in Europe. Joan was 19 and attending college in London. In 1940, Joan went back to Lyminge and taught in the village school, a position she held for four years. When the war ended in 1944, things felt too quiet, so Joan answered an advertisement in an educational magazine. She interviewed for and was hired almost immediately to be the head mistress of a school in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.
Joan sailed on the "Atlantis," one of the first vessels to cross the Atlantic after the war. She lived in Trinidad from 1946-1952, and was headmistress of "St Andrews School." On her first day in Port-of-Spain, she took her very first shower. Unfortunately, she left the shower curtain on the outside of the tub, causing a small flood in the bathroom. She rushed downstairs wrapped in a towel to get some assistance, and there met her future husband, Harry L. Whitehead. He ably helped mop up the water, and wasted no time in asking her out on a date. Activities she enjoyed in Trinidad during this time included tennis, swimming, going to Maracas Bay beach (although she was terrified to dive under the big waves), and learning to drive (taught by Harry). Of course, she continued playing the piano and organ. Harry and Joan took Bible studies over several months, and joined the Seventh-day Adventist church.
In 1952, Joan headed back home to England. She taught elementary school, was the principal of an elementary school, and took some Bible courses at Newbold College. During these two years, she and Harry corresponded regularly and frequently. She finally accepted his proposal of marriage, and in 1954 boarded the Queen Mary and sailed across the Atlantic to New York. There she took the train to Chicago, and then another train to Pendleton, OR. Joan and Harry were married in College Place, WA on October 10, 1954. They chose to settle in Yakima, WA, where the two of them opened an insurance agency, Whitehead Insurance, in 1955. Beginning in an empty office, with only a desk and a phone and a filing cabinet, the insurance agency soon prospered due to their hard work and dedication. To supplement their income in the early days of the insurance agency, Joan taught at Cascade Kindergarten from 1955-59.
Joan and Harry were very active in the Yakima Seventh-day Adventist church. She held just about every position of leadership that one could hold: organist, pianist, home and school leader, childrens divisions' leader and teacher, head deaconess, adult Sabbath School leader, Sabbath School superintendent, community service leader, and elder. People loved to hear her proper English accent, especially in her thoughtfully expressed prayers. She was often asked to read or narrate at church programs, and she generously shared her hugs and her words of wisdom with others. Everyone who met her loved her warmth, her sense of humor and her charm.
She continued to enjoy playing tennis into her early '80's. It was her great delight in recent years to watch her grandson play tennis, and to hear of his victories. Visits over cups of tea with her daughters and her granddaughter were also high points in her life. She loved gardening, playing the piano, cooking, knitting and other handicrafts, and she enjoyed the challenge of a difficult crossword puzzle. She was energized by her church involvements, her work at Whitehead Insurance, and participating in all the details of her daughters' lives. Helen and Stella were her joy and her pride from their births until the day of her death.
Joan is survived by her daughters, Helen G. Teske and Stella E. Whitehead; her son-in-law, John H. Teske Jr; her grandchildren, Julia and Devin Teske; and her sister, Barbara Hopper. Joan was preceded in death by her parents, Charles and Annie Maggs; her brother, Ken Maggs; and her husband, Harry L. Whitehead.
Visitation and viewing will be held on Monday, June 29, from 4-8 pm in the chapel at Keith and Keith Funeral Home, 902 West Yakima Ave. A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, June 30 at 6:30 pm at the Seventh-day Adventist Church, 507 North 35th Avenue, with refreshments afterwards in the Mary & Martha Fellowship Hall.
