Joan Hicks

Joan Chapman Hicks, 89, of Atlanta, GA, formerly of St. Cloud passed away on Friday June 6, 2020 from natural causes.

Born in Dunston-on-Tyne, Durham, England in 1930, Joan Hicks grew up in England during World War II and survived the diphtheria epidemic of 1943 that killed thousands of people. She graduated from the Yorkshire Training College of Housecraft in 1951 and became a home economics teacher at Rugby High School.

In 1956 she married Dennis Hicks a mechanical engineer who worked in gas turbines. In 1963, Joan and Dennis and daughters, Diana and Anne immigrated to Canada. A few years later, the family moved to the United States living in Milwaukee, followed by rural New York State, St. Cloud Minnesota, New Jersey and back to central Minnesota.

Having been required to give up teaching upon the birth of her first child, Joan later retrained in accounting and made a second career in tax preparation and teaching tax preparation for H&R Block of St. Cloud. Outside of work, Joan was involved with League of Women Voters Minnesota for many years as well as the Commonwealth Club of other British women living in St. Cloud.

Joan was an amateur silversmith, and has made, among other projects, a lovely tea set. She knitted all her life, starting in school to keep from being bored, and continuing right up to a few years ago. Diana has a fabulous sweater collection as a result.

Two years ago she moved to Atlanta to be near her eldest daughter, Diana and her husband, Philip. Also surviving is her youngest daughter, Anne and her husband, Patrick Harney and their two sons, George and Philip, who live in Baltimore; and her brother, George Chapman, and his wife, Marcia and their son, Neil who live near London, England.

Joan will be returned to St. Cloud to be placed beside her husband, Dennis at North Star Cemetery.