JoAnn Hawk

JoAnn Hawk was born in Newcastle, Wyoming to Roy and Beulah Cool on Sept. 1, 1945. JoAnn was the youngest of 7 children. She graduated high school with the class of 1962.

 She married her first husband, Bill Wrage, a year or two after graduation and had 2 children. A daughter; Willie Jo Wrage on July 23, 1964, and a son; Steven Roy Wrage on Sept. 3, 1966.

They divorced in 1972 and she moved to Billings, Montana after being accepted into the Mountain Plains Family Training Program. Upon completion of the program, she moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming where she got a job working at the State capital as a secretary. Soon after starting there, she was offered a better secretarial job at the Mountain Plains Family Training Program main office in Cheyenne.

She worked for Vern Hawk there for 5 years. Then, the program ended, and she married Vern Hawk. Shortly after that she moved to Lodi, California where she worked at the Lodi Grape Festival office until 1985 when her son graduated high school.

After that JoAnn enrolled in college and achieved her master’s degree in Sociology and graduated valedictorian of her class. She went on to teach at Delta College in Stockton, CA and UC Stanislaus in Stanislaus, CA. She is preceded in death by her first husband; Bill Wrage, her daughter; Willie Jo Wrage Benson Hawk, and her second husband; Vern Hawk. She is survived by 2 of her sisters; Martha Hokanson and Betty Shults, her son; Steven Wrage, 2 granddaughters; Tangela Rose Love and Shawnee Lee Wrage, her great granddaughter Erl (Ember Rose Love) and numerous cousins, nieces, nephews, great nieces, great nephews, and many, many friends. JoAnn was an extraordinary treasure who not only brighten the lives of the ones who knew her, but also made the World a brighter place. It is noticeably dimmer with her absence, and she is missed and loved immensely.