Joan E. Baermann

Joan Baermann was a loving mother who raised six children in a Christian setting always putting their needs before her own. Spiritual and devoted Catholic, she was a very involved parishioner including being a church lecturer at St. Paul of the Cross Catholic Church. She was a giving person in every sense of the word. Joan regularly gave blood for the new babies that shared her rare type of blood.

Arthur and Virginia Westrick welcomed the birth of their second child on September 13, 1935 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She was married to Carl W. Baermann on April 23, 1955 where they resided in Huntertown before moving to Loon Lake, Columbia City in 1997. As a child she enjoyed ice skating and sledding at Franke Park, swimming at Lawton pool, movies and popcorn at Wells Theater along with baseball with her boy cousins were just a few of the things that made her childhood magic.

Joan worked at ITT Aerospace/Communications Division for 21 years retiring in 1998. Joan was involved in many activities, a member of the Indiana Extension Homemakers Association in Huntertown for 56 years, Red Hatters, Silver Sneakers and love for dancing. Some of her greatest accomplishments were receiving First Honorable Mention in Fort Wayne's Bicentennial Adult Poetry Contest; she was an accomplished poet writing poetry for births, holidays, celebrations, deaths, etc. along with getting her Associate's Degree in English at the age of 50 from IPFW. She can be remembered as one of the first scrap bookers as she put together scrap books for each of her 6 children's graduations and books for her 15 grandchildren. Hobbies included sewing, making many of her children's clothes, bridesmaid dresses and so much more, crocheting making her grandchildren graduation Afghans, gardening with her beautiful flowers and watching and feeding birds. Some of her children's fondest memories are camping at Chain-O-Lakes and summer vacations on Fish Lake where she taught them to swim. Her and husband Carl enjoyed I.U. basketball, White Sox baseball and Indianapolis Colts football.

Joan Baermann, 83 of Columbia City, Indiana, passed away at 10:42 a.m. on Sunday, March 31, 2019 at Chandler Place, Kendallville.

Survivors include her loving children; Jan (Steve) Davis of Huntertown, C. Phillip (Deb) Baermann and Kathy (Jr.) Warner, both of LaOtto, Barbara (Dennis) Campbell of Albion, William Sr. (Kelly) Baermann of North Manchester and Mimi (Ron) Lanning of Butler; grandchildren Jeremy, C. Andrew, Matthew, Brandon, Michael , Thomas, William Jr., Jami, Adam, Nicole, Jessi, Karisa, Eric, Jake and Alyssa; and 27 great-grandchildren. She is also survived by four siblings, Josetta (Richard) Salaro, Dennis (Eileen) and Gerald Westrick, Donna (Harry) Quandt and 1 sister in law, Joni Westrick. She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Carl Baermann; brother, David Westrick and sister, Marcia Carney.

A gathering of family and friends will be from 4-8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 3, 2019 at DeMoney-Grimes, a Life Story Funeral Home, 600 Countryside Drive, Columbia City. Recitation of the Rosary will be held at the funeral home at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday. A Mass of Christian Burial for Joan will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday April 4, 2019 at St. Paul of the Cross Catholic Church 315 South Line Street, Columbia City, with visitation one hour prior. Burial will follow in Highland Park Cemetery, Fort Wayne. The family prefers memorial contributions in memory of Joan to be made to St. Paul of the Cross Catholic Church Building Fund or National Ataxia Foundation. Visit www.demoneygrimes.com to send the family an online condolence.