Joann T. Panneton

On the morning of January 12th, 2025, Joann Theresa Panneton passed away surrounded and supported by her beloved family and friends who, near and far, held her in their hearts, while her children held her hands closely in comfort and love to her last breath.

Mom was born on July 1st, 1936 and was given the name Josephine by her parents, Jakov and Mary Gasparac, who held a small dairy farm in the rural area of Greenwood, Wisconsin where, like the Gasparac family, immigrants from Croatia and elsewhere supported each other in the hard work and humble living conditions that held them in their small farming community. Mom’s earliest memories and life lessons were made in those fields and forests and forged her lifelong ethic for hard work and strong family bonds, and which inspired her wisdom-filled appreciation for the simple gifts that life can be blessed with.

There was no electricity or plumbing in those early years on the farm, but there was the warmth of a cow’s massive belly, where mom was often found cuddled up in as a toddler; and there was the hay-filled comfort of the beloved family barn where there might have been time for play between the endless chores of farm life; the creek down the road was a shorter walk to a fishing adventure than the longer daily walk necessary to reach the one room schoolhouse that accommodated her education; and the patch of forest on the farm was sacred ground for sisters who held hands in search of early mayflowers that always returned in spring time, in spite of those bone-chilling Wisconsin winters.

Mom left the open space and quietude of the farm as a teenager, sent in summers, along with her older sisters, to make extra money in the Chicago area as a maid and housekeeper. Certainly no stranger to hard work, she took on many odd jobs over her graduating high school and college years, until she would meet the love of her life and father to her four children, Robert, whose navy outfit was stationed by Lake Michigan.

Mom moved out east to her first look and lasting love of the Atlantic coast, and raised her family while taking jobs to help supplement the family budget. Over the years, mom took work as a bus driver, a secretary, a dispatcher and administrative professional, and even a cook for clergy, among her many paid positions. Mom was eventually forced to single-handedly finish raising her children and keep her home after their father took ill. Her children will remember mom high up on a ladder painting the family home, or laying brick for the back yard patio, as she continued to enthusiastically care for the modest home that she loved.

Her children and grand children will remember her as someone who could chop and stack wood next to any lumberjack in pursuit of a good backyard cache to keep her family warmer in winters; or who could single-handedly shepherd all her children on a car camping journey back to her Wisconsin family home where awaited all manner of kid adventures; or who fearlessly forged the way on a late summer’s day deep into the chest high blueberry bog to pick gallons of berries to put by; or who carefully tended the beautiful houseplants that adorned her windows, some of which were grown from cuttings of her own mother’s heirloom plants; or who, with her grand kids toddling along, turned her modest back yard into a vegetable and flower garden paradise that brought forth fresh flowers for the summer table and delicious tomatoes for canning and winter sustenance.

Mom loved what life’s pleasures could bring even through the inevitable pain and disappointments that she had to endure, and through the severe physical pain that she suffered in her last years, brought by a life of hard physical work and child rearing.

Dancing, knitting, gardening, crafting, yard saleing, antique collecting, reading, cooking, baking, rug braiding, and sewing were some of the many hobbies that she shared with so many friends and family over the years and that transformed her survival of difficulties to a life that enriched us all and showed us how we might thrive and rise above obstacles and hold on to the greatest gifts that life still has to offer and which are held in a mother’s love that will last an eternity.

Mom is preceded in death by her beloved former husband, Robert; her parents, Jakov Gasparac, and Mary Briski Gasparac, and her brother, Frank. She is survived by her beloved siblings, Ann, Mae, Katherine, and Jack. She leaves her surviving children, Michael, Rodney, Edward, and Lisa, and she leaves her 7 Grandchildren, Mikayla, Mathew, Riley, Conor, Jack, Lindsey and Alex. 

May Joann continue to inspire us as we hold her precious life in our hearts and as we walk behind those footsteps that filled out her singular path; a life that was so richly lived and now lovingly remembered, in so many ways. She will continue to keep us warm in the sweaters and afghans that she so expertly made, and her hands will be alongside ours as we continue to till the ground and toil in the joys and sorrows that life brings. And, though she never learned to swim, mom will be getting her feet wet along side ours in the cold waters of the ocean beaches she so loved. As we still marvel at the tapestry of patchwork and repair that she knitted and sewed for the knees and elbows of our work clothes and sweaters, may her memory be kept alive to cultivate and heal our broken hearts.

Services will be private and a Celebration of Life will be held at a later date.

Arrangements are under the care of Badger Funeral Home, A Life Celebration Home, 45 School St. Groton, MA. 978-486-3709.