Joanne Lott's Obituary
Joanne Maris Lott
Born: March 21, 1953 in Seattle, Washington
Died: December 23, 2014 in Tacoma, Washington
Married: Merton Robert Lott on July 13, 1974, in Mount Vernon, Washington
Mother of three boys, Eric, Peter and Joseph
She is preceded in Death by her father George and several Aunts and uncles
She is survived by her Husband Merton; sons Eric Lars and wife Sam, Peter Olen, and Joseph Lief and wife Val; her mother Mary Margaret; her sister Maggie; her sister Michelle and brother Steve; all 7 of Merton’s brothers and sister, numerous nephews and nieces.
Joanne is a Beautiful wife and best friend of her husband; a loving and supportive mother to her three sons, a devoted daughter; a loving sister to Maggie and to her recently found blood brother and sister Michelle and Steve; an attentive and loving friend to hundreds including many of her former students; a Catholic Christian teacher to the many students under her care, a devoted follower of Christ; an exuberant participant in the Parishes she has belonged, and a unsurpassed supporter of Catholic education.
Please make donations to the St. Frances Cabrini endowment, the Joanne Lott fund.
Joanne liked to be with friends and family. She loved to throw and attend parties and gatherings. She loved to cook, especially desserts. For several years she donated dinners with her friend EJ Carter to the Cabrini Auction that sold for several hundred dollars. Christmas Cookies were one of her favorites and she has transferred this love to her sons, and even this year prepared about 10 different types of cookies.
Traveling was one of the favorite hobbies for Merton and Joanne. They have been to a large majority of the National Parks, most all of the states and back and forth across many of the highways in this land. They discovered cruising about 10 years ago and have gone on several, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Alaska.
Joanne enjoyed going to Plays. Through her parents she developed a particular love of musicals. Joanne and Merton had memberships at the Fifth Avenue and Tacoma Musical. They also volunteered at TAG for several years before it closed.
She loved to go to the Ocean and had a special interest in Marine animals. Joanne and Merton volunteered with the Oregon Whale watch program and she enjoyed the scientific classes in preparation very much. She has a small collection of art depicting various whales.
Her favorite place however, was the mountains, in particular Mount Rainier National Park. Since she knew Merton in 1973, until October of 2014 she enjoyed going to Paradise and taking hikes. Her Computer has a picture of THE MOUNTAIN as does her I-Pad. One of her last vacations was a trip to Glacier National Park.
Joanne also loved Music, she had thousands of downloads for her I-pod and enjoyed going to concerts such as Chris Isaak this summer with Dave and Lindy O’keefe. Joanne played competitive bridge with her husband, what she liked most about it was talking to the people.
History
Joanne’s birth mother died when Joanne was a baby, and Joanne was adopted by George and Mary Margaret Kiesel. Joanne was proud of her adoption, and the family celebrated her and her adoptive sister Maggie’s adoptions on an annual basis. Joanne would often say she won the parent jackpot.
Joanne moved around a lot as a child as her father George work for the US Navy’s personnel office. They started by moving to Kodiak Alaska, Then to Vienna, Virginia, to Puerto Rico, back to Virginia. Finally they moved to Huntington Beach California where Joanne graduated from Marina High School in 1971.
In the fall of 1971 she started at Seattle University. There she met her husband to be Merton. Her areas of studies included political science, history and social studies. She participated in several activities including the Spurs a service sorority. She worked at St Joseph Parish on Capitol Hill.
A year after Merton’s graduation July 1974, Joanne and Merton got married in Mount Vernon, Washington where her parents had moved after George retired. Merton had just taken a job in Olympia and so they moved there and started their life together. Joanne who had been working for retired Judge Shakleford in Tacoma took a job with the Department of Licensing, until 1976.
On July 31, 1976 their first child, Eric Lars was born. Then on January 7, 1978, Peter Olen was born; and finally On August 29, 1979, Joseph Lief was born. They lived on the East side of Lacey until the kids were in High School. Joanne enjoyed many hobbies such as pottery, cross stitching and even bowling. She and Merton attended St Michael’s Church in Olympia. They liked to travel, and spent a lot of time with Merton’s brother and sisters hiking, camping and at family events. One of Joanne’s greatest hobbies grew, namely cooking. Her collection of cook books began growing eventually reaching hundreds.
After the kids had all started school, Joanne went back to school. Originally hoping to become a doctor she concentrated her studies on the Sciences. Ultimately however, she decided that there may be too much stress for the long medical course of studies and she switched her plan to education, but her love of science, particularly geology, had already been formed. In March of 1985, Evergreen State College awarded her a Bachelor of Arts. The degree was coupled with a degree in education from Pacific Lutheran University.
Her first education job was at St. Michael’s School in Olympia, 1985. Then in 1987 she went to work for St. Frances Cabrini in Lakewood in as a seventh and eighth grade teacher. She loved to teach the 7th and 8th graders as she found that she enjoyed communicating with them. And it appears she did just that as many of her past students come up and thank her for what they got from her in addition to just the curriculum. She liked to work with the kids in extracurricular activities. She spent years supporting a skit based problem solving activity, Destination Imagination formerly Olympics of the Mind. She loved to teach the students drama by having them put on Shakespeare plays. She liked to take the children on extended trips including Ashland Oregon, and Mt St Helens.
In 1992 Joanne and Merton moved to Lakewood to be closer to Cabrini School and Bellarmine Prep where they had started sending their boys.
Joanne went back to school again and graduated from University of Puget Sound in Tacoma in 1998 with a Master of Education. Her performance there resulted in her being asked to be on an advisory board for UPS’s department of Education.
In 2000 she was offered the principal’s job at St. Mary’s in Aberdeen. They moved to Montesano where they attended St. John’s Church. She was involved in many activities in that parish and like everywhere else developed many friends. Two years later she took the principals job at St. Nicholas School in Gig Harbor. Joanne and Merton moved back to Lakewood but attended St. Nicholas Church until Joanne decided to step down and return to Cabrini as the assistant principal in 2006 when they Joined St John Bosco Parish.
Joanne became ill sometime in 2013, and the symptoms grew worse until she had a TIA in January 2014. She fought hard for the last several months. She took a positive attitude into everything she did including a short period of work in September. Joanne and Merton attempted to do as many of her favorite activities including a camping trip ln a borrowed RV in November with her friends. She spent as much time as possible with her friends sewing, partying, dining and just talking. But three trips a week to the doctors limited her range. Some of the last words she said boldly to a pair of transporters at the hospital were,” I love you, and I love you, I love everybody”. And she did.
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