Joan Menard
Joan Evelyn Bowie Menard, 80, of Ten Mile, passed away peacefully on Sunday, September 17, 2023, at her home surrounded by her family.
Joan was born on June 21, 1943, in Lewiston, Me., to the late Clifford and Evelyn Bowie. She graduated from Lisbon High School in 1961. She began her nursing career, graduating from Central Maine School of Nursing, in 1964. In 1966 She married the love of her life, David Menard, in 1966 and continued her nursing career at Parkview Memorial Hospital in Brunswick, Maine where she was employed for 35 years and served as the hospital nursing supervisor and was responsible for writing the policies and procedures manuals. Joan and Dave, along with their three beautiful daughters, also ran a small farm.
Joan enjoyed bird watching and gardening, especially growing flowers. Each of her three daughters were married in her flower gardens in Maine. She also loved to hike in Maine and especially the White Mountains and Green Mountains of Vermont, and more recently the Great Smokey Mountains and the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee. For many years she also did cross-stitching, ceramics, and cake decorating over the years as well as traveling the world, including several trips to Australia to visit her daughter and her husband and grandchildren. She enjoyed camping and hiking with her daughters as they were growing up. She was elected and served the SAD 75 School Board where she served her community while her children were young.
Of all her hobbies, what she enjoyed the most was spending time with her grandchildren, teaching them about nature, flowers, and insects. At age 76 she took up kayaking.
In 2003 She and Dave moved to Kingston, TN where she continued her nursing career in the Emergency Room at the Roane County Medical Center until her retirement in 2015, where she also spent a year as the patient advocate for ER patients prior to her retirement. She had been a volunteer at Meigs Ministries since 2003 and, for the last few years had been a volunteer at Decatur St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic. Joan was a communicant of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Athens.
She is preceded in death by her parents: Clifford and Evelyn Bowie and a grandson: Devin Michael Stevens.
Survivors include: her husband David, her daughters: Christine J. Lackey and husband Terry of Ten Mile, Monique A. Stevens and husband Dave of Kingston, and Julie L. Sagnol and husband David of Warrnambool, Australia, son: Harland Stanley of Topsham, Maine, brothers: Robert Bowie and wife, Geraldine of Phippsburg, NJ, Ronald Bowie and his wife, Wendy of Punta Gorda, FL, and Richard Bowie and his wife, Irene of Maine and Florida, grandchildren: Alexiss and Larissa Lackey, Blake and Tyler Stevens, and Jeremy, Jaimie and Nathen Sagnol, Lilly and Eli Stanley, great-grandchildren: Abbigail Waters, Addison Derosia and Cylus Alves, several nieces, nephews, and other extended family.
A Celebration of life memorial service will be held on Saturday, Sept. 30, at 1 p.m. in the chapel of Decatur Funeral Home & Cremation Services with Chaplin Michael Jackson officiating.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that live plants be sent or that trees be planted to honor Joan’s memory.
Decatur Funeral Home & Cremation Services is honored to serve the Menard family.