Joan Meier

GENESEO — Joan Lucille (Madsen) Meier, 91, of Geneseo passed away unexpectedly on Saturday, April 7, 2018, at the Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, while visiting relatives.

Joan was born Jan. 7, 1927, the daughter of Alfred and Verda (Johnson) Madsen in Princeton. Growing up on the family farm in Sheffield, she learned how to preserve fruits and vegetables as well as deliver milk, in a horse drawn wagon. She graduated from Sheffield High School with the class of 1944. In 1948 she graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in home economics education.

On Nov. 11, 1951, she was united in marriage to Donald Ernest Meier at the Sheffield Methodist Church.

Joan taught home economics in Monmouth, Cambridge, Tiskilwa and Geneseo.

Joan was a very active homemaker and volunteer. She was a skilled seamstress and cook, well known for her frozen sweet corn, ham balls and Danish pepper nuts by those fortunate to eat in the family home. Joan volunteered with 4-H, as a Cub Scout den leader and as a Girl Scout leader, participated in Home Bureau and Home Economics Clubs and was active in church. She belonged to the Sheffield Methodist Church, St. Peter United Church of Christ in Geneseo, and most recently the First Congregational Church of Geneseo. Most importantly she was a loving wife and mother of two children, grandmother of five and great-grandmother of two.

Those left to cherish her memory include her husband, Donald Meier; her son, Robert (Emily) Meier of Montesano, Wash.; her daughter, Janet (David) Landeweer of Arlington Heights; her grandchildren, Daniel (Zandile) Meier of Bothell, Wash., Ryan (Elena) Meier of Woodinville, Wash., Julia (Evan) Rush of Stillwater, Okla., Steven Landeweer of Miami, Fla., and Jonathan Landeweer of Arlington Heights; two great-grandchildren, David Meier and Jobe Meier; a sister, Marilyn Wilkerson of Elk Grove Village; and a brother, Richard Madsen of Carlsbad, Calif.

Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Friday, April 13, at the First Congregational Church in Geneseo with the Rev. Bruce Bergthold officiating. Burial will follow at Oakwood Cemetery in Geneseo.

Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, April 12, at the Vandemore Funeral Home and from 10 to 11 a.m. Friday at the church.

Memorials may be left to the First Congregational Church in Geneseo or the charity of donor’s choice.

Share a message of sympathy with Joan's family at www.vandemorefuneralhome.com.