Joan Elizabeth Rasmussen

Madison -- Joan Elizabeth Rasmussen, age 83, passed away on Sunday, Nov. 14, 2010 at Ingleside Nursing Home in Mt. Horeb.   Joan was born in Green Bay on August 20, 1927, the daughter of John A. and Etta J. (Frisk) Mohr.   She enjoyed art all of her life.  Joan was an avid Packer fan from childhood.   She attended Shimer College in Illinois and U.W. Wisconsin-Madison, in Art History.   She then attended Spring Garden Institute in Philadelphia, where she met her close friend, Laura Beale Toy.   She married A. Robert Rasmussen in Philadelphia, whom she had met at U.W. Madison, in February 1950.   They settled in Madison and had three children. Later in life, she and Bob settled in a cottage on the Green Bay shore, in Dykesville.   She continued to work on her art, taking courses and doing portraits.   She was an artist who could see the unseen and capture it in her work.   Joan was a realist, a good mother and a good wife.   She helped run the family construction business, A.R. Rasmussen Construction, Inc., for 12 years.   She was a good friend and had a unique ability to bring out the goodness and humanity in others. Joan was preceded in death by her parents; her first child, Cynthia Joan, age three; husband, Bob; and brothers, Jack, Robert and Jerome.   She is survived by her son and daughter, John Scott and Linda Susan of Madison; and sister, Dorothy Carter of Sun Prairie.   A visitation will be held Monday, Nov. 22, 2010 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at CRESS FUNERAL HOME, 3610 Speedway Road.   A service will follow at 6 p.m.