Joan T Wiegand

In Loving Memory of Joan Theresa Wiegand, beloved wife, sister, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend.

Sunrise: September 14,1935 Sunset: April 17, 2025

Joan was born in Shamokin, PA to Michael and Rose Seach, the second of seven children of Polish -Ukrainian decent. They soon moved to New York where she grew up on Staten Island attending Catholic school from K-12. Her dream was to always be a Mom and learned early helping care for her younger siblings. She graduated from Sacred Heart in 1949 and was soon working in a secretarial pool.

Joan was introduced to Henry (Hank) Wiegand through some friends and wed in January 1956.

They loved to dance and go bowling. When they discussed having children and how many, Hank replied, “As many as God will bless us with!” Hank was in the Air Force and after marriage they lived briefly on Long Island. A change of duty stations took them to Aviano Air Base in Italy where their first son, Kevin, was born. Joan enjoyed traveling throughout Europe before he came along, seeing the sites in northern Italy, Austria, Germany and Holland.

Another change in duty stations and their second son, Steven, was born at Homestead AF Base in Florida in July of 1960. The travel continued, driving up the eastern coast to NY to see family several times and checking off states they visited. While changing duty stations to Nellis AF Base in April of 1962 and pregnant with their first daughter, the family was involved in a horrific head-on that put them in the hospital in Florida. Recovery continued in NY where, Linda was born in July. Finally, later in 1962, they arrived in Las Vegas.

The growing family was soon to grow larger, even with Hank being in and out of hospital with surgeries for a fused hip. In June 1963, Joan gave birth to another daughter, Pamela, soon to be followed by a third son, John, in December of 1964. Then a fourth son, David, in October of 1966. Soon it was time to change duty stations again, this time to Tempelhoff AF Base in Berlin, Germany in January of 1967. Hank had his large station wagon shipped to Germany. They were quite the site with small heads being counted by passers-by as most families there only had one or two children and lucky to have a car half the size. That summer, Hank, Joan and the four oldest children traveled by car through the eastern block of Germany to Austria and through the Alps by rail into northern Italy to visit where Kevin lived his first two years. Then it was back to Austria and into Germany to see the sites. It was to be a five year assignment, but Hank couldn’t handle the damp and cold with his fused hip and retired a year later to return to the US. A short stay in NY with kids split to stay with aunts & uncles while she stayed with her parents with the two youngest until Hank was medically discharged and they relocated to upstate NY to stay for a short time with Hank’s mom. The summer of 1968 saw the family traveling by car across the northern states, stopping to see the sites and visit with family and friends from the service on the way back to Las Vegas. Four years later, in September of 1972, their last son, Chris, was born.

Joan loved having a large family and was blessed with great organizational skills, adapting to whatever came her way. She was a Mom to many of the children’s friends even to the end. She was an outstanding cook and baker, with seven kids she had lots of practice. Her love of books and reading carried over to all her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She loved singing to each generation and most will remember Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral and My Bonnie lies over the ocean. She loved music and it was played constantly. Often, she had records on when the eldest children came home from school. They all know the crooners she listened to and her favorite artists: Elvis Presley, Perry Como, Englbert, Tom Jones, Andy Williams, Ed Ames and Tony Bennett. Her love of music carried over to most of her children as well.

She was industrious and a do-it-yourselfer before that was even a common term. Joan built the kids first sandbox with a shade cover while Hank was in the hospital. She sewed and made some of the girls clothes and often was repairing the boys torn jeans or shirts. Later, when the oldest were teens, she took up crocheting and was so good at it she began selling baby buntings, jackets, scarves, hats and throws, saving those funds for vacation travel.

In 1984, they had one last trip abroad to Germany, Austria, Lichtenstein, Switzerland and Italy with best friends Ricky and Jim. When Hank retired in 1991, they bought a new car and did a lap around America visiting family and service friends. They did a west coast trip to San Francisco, the Muir Woods, the Giant Redwoods and vineyards, it would be the end of traveling for Hank as his health began to decline, passing away in 2000. Joan too lived with health issues, having been diagnosed with MS in her 50’s. She faced the challenges with strength and prayer and was thankful God spared her from the truly debilitating effects for most of her life, the mobility challenges coming in the last 10 years. She managed another trip to Iowa where she and her living siblings met for the last time while visiting her grandson Nicholas. Joan had life-long friends on Long Island and the military, keeping in touch with them until only a few months ago.

Her faith was a constant source of fulfilment. She read her bible daily and would write special prayers within and highlight passages. She kept a picture of Hank in her bible and every morning would greet him with, “Good morning, Honey!” before starting her morning prayers. Joan was ready to meet the Lord and had told her children so to prepare them for the inevitable. Two pages of her bible were stuck together and carefully separated – the phrase that impacted all of them was: Jesus’ words describe death as sleep to which we wake to a new day.

Joan was preceded in death by her husband - Henry (Hank) Wiegand, son – John Wiegand and grandson – Shawn Wiegand, her parents Michael and Rose and two brothers, Michael and Gregory Seach.

She is survived by four of six siblings: her older brother – George Seach, younger sisters – Rosemarie Vicinanza, Bea Wallace, Harriet Gati and sister-n-law Barbara Seach, her six children and spouses, twelve grandchildren and twenty-two great-grandchildren, not to mention numerous nieces and nephews and great-nieces and nephews:

Kevin (Denise) Wiegand, Brandon (JoAnn) Wiegand, Dakota Wiegand, Brice and Dillan Foster, Brianne (Jeff Foreman), Chloe & Charlotte, Steve (Colleen) Wiegand, Shannon (Gary Adair), Linda Clayton, Erin (Christopher Kuhl), Amelia, Peter, Amanda Jaramillo, Aiden, Peyton, Quinn and Piper, Nicholas (Samantha) Clayton, Levi, Avery and Brooks, Pamela Schaefer (Dave Rieder), Julian (Bernadette) Newell, Kamillah, Jameson and Izzy, Jonas (Jennine) Newell, Rylan, Ryleigh, Kellin and Kambryn, Zachary (Xuan) Newell, Miles, Michelle Newell, David Wiegand & (Nina Coffey), Chris Wiegand, Monique (Austin) Wiegand-Strayer, Hunter.

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