Joan Kemnitz

Madison - Joan Alice Kemnitz died peacefully on March 24 at Agrace Hospice Care in Madison with family at her bedside.  She was born On March 25, 1933, in Joliet, Illinois to Harold C. and Alice M. (Ziebarth) Kemnitz, and while growing up lived in Erie, Pennsylvania; Waterloo, Wisconsin; and Baltimore, Maryland.  Joan was an outstanding student at the Institute of Notre Dame in Baltimore, displaying exceptional writing and editorial skills.  She entered the community of the School Sisters of Notre Dame after finishing high school and received training in elementary school education, subsequently teaching in Baltimore and Dallas, Texas before moving to Madison. Joan was a highly respected and much-loved teacher at Blessed Sacrament School in Madison and St. Bernard’s School in Middleton.  She received additional education at the University of Wisconsin and Madison Area Technical College and worked as laboratory and editorial assistant for Prof. David E. Green at the Institute for Enzyme Research at the University of Wisconsin.

Joan was a gentle, perceptive, caring, and insightful person.  She loved everyone and all aspects of nature, thunderstorms, quiet snowfalls, forests, and animals, especially her beloved housecats.  Sadly, she was burdened by psychiatric illness that limited her activities and episodically caused her distress, although she continued writing children’s stories and poetry in her later years.  We are grateful to the mental health care providers who treated her and for the newer medications that mitigated her symptoms.  Joan was a profoundly religious person and the family is grateful to pastoral representatives who attended to her spiritual needs, notably Mr. Ed Emmenegger who visited her regularly for nearly 20 years.  We also thank the staff of Care Wisconsin, Capitol Lakes and Badger Prairie for years of care and UW Hospital and Agrace Hospice for their recent care of Joan.

Joan will be greatly missed by sisters Betty Lou (Emilio) Chasse of Liverpool, New York and Suzanne (Carl) Arvidson of Carson City, Nevada; sister-in-law Nancy Kemnitz of Oxford, Michigan; and brother Joe (Amanda) Kemnitz of Madison, as well as three generations of many nieces and nephews. She is further survived by cousins Marilyn Ringelstetter of Sun Prairie and Don Delwiche of Rochester, New York. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by brother Jim.

Madison - Joan Alice Kemnitz died peacefully on March 24 at Agrace Hospice Care in Madison with family at her bedside. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at BLESSED SACRAMENT ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, 2121 Rowley Ave., Madison, on Thursday, June 18, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. with Father Samuel Hakeem O.P. presiding. Burial will follow at Resurrection Cemetery. A visitation will be held on Thursday from 9:30 a.m. until the time Mass.

Please consider a memorial contribution to Agrace Hospice or the charity of your choice.

Cress Funeral & Cremation Services

3610 Speedway Road

(608) 238-3434