Loving wife, mother, friend and Nona

Joan Peggy Moore, 83, of Vancouver, Washington, died peacefully on Monday, November 6, 2023.

Joan was born to Valentino Bartelo and Josephine Cecilia Taranto in 1940, in Oak Park, Illinois. Her parents lived in a one-room apartment near their large Italian family and later had two more daughters and a son. Joan attended Barry Elementary School, where she received “excellents” and “superiors” in her classes. She played the piano, took dance classes, and was confirmed in the Lutheran Church. She was very close to her sisters and cousins, and she often spoke of how she had to hand wash ALL of the dishes after every large Sunday family dinner.

When Joan was 16, her father moved the family to Santa Barbara, where he opened a hair salon and later an Italian restaurant. There they had many more Sunday family dinners at their Mission Canyon home. Joan graduated from Santa Barbara High School and attended Santa Barbara Business College. She and her sister Valerie moved into a small apartment behind their grandmother Lena’s house and worked at General Motors Co., where they sang in the choir.

Joan was engaged several times, once to a dance instructor with whom she won many dance competitions. Then, she attended a friend’s party in Ojai, California, met Gene and eloped with him in January 1966, to the Little Chapel of the Flowers in Las Vegas. They went on to be married for 57 years.

Joan was told by a doctor that she would never be able to have children, so she was beyond thrilled when she learned she was pregnant with their first child. She gave birth to Melissa in Santa Barbara in August 1966. Ken was born three years later in June 1969.

Joan followed her husband’s dream to be a head football coach when he got a job in Prineville, Oregon. She gave birth to Steve in October 1970. With three young children, life in a small town, and her husband working long hours, Joan survived a rough time by making close friends with the neighbors and writing long letters to her mother and sisters. 
Soon they moved to Hillsboro and then landed permanently in Vancouver, Washington, where their fourth child, Ryan, was born in June 1974. Joan was a loving full-time mother, raising four active children. She cooked many spaghetti dinners, drove the kids to all their sports activities and dentist appointments, and vacuumed loudly on Saturday mornings to wake them from sleeping in. Her children were her pride and joy. She often bragged about their accomplishments, even to the cashier at the grocery store.

Never one to sit idle, Joan became active in New Heights Baptist Church, where she was baptized in 1976. She also joined the social and service sorority Beta Sigma Phi, sold Tupperware, Mary Kay and Avon, and worked as a reading aide at the local elementary school. Joan spoke to her sisters by phone weekly and relished visits from her mom, who traveled up by train at least once a year. Joan took many trips to Santa Barbara, Chicago, Hawaii and the Oregon Coast – her favorite places in the world.

In her later years, Joan’s joy was spending time with her six grandchildren, who she babysat every week, letting them build forts, play games, bake cookies and have slumber parties. She spent all vacations, birthdays and holidays with her family and will lovingly be remembered for the famous Easter Bunny cake she made with each grandchild. 
She valued her faith and attended New Heights Baptist Church every week. She was a member and hostess for Vancouver Women’s Connection, finding guest speakers for the monthly meeting. She also was an active part of a prayer group and bible study, where she made many special friends. Joan attended water exercise and Swing and Sway classes at Touchmark, which included many birthday lunches and dancing in several flash mobs at the antique car shows.

Joan did most of these activities with her best friend Shirley. The two of them created a weekly friend group called the Ditzy Dames, who played cards, went to the casino, volunteered and laughed to high heaven.

Joan loved taking pictures, especially of cards and flowers she was given. She loved her Italian heritage and receiving comments about how young she looked. She always signed the Facebook comments she wrote with “Hugs, Joan.” She was a happy, positive ray of sunlight spreading goodness wherever she went. Her words of advice to her children were simple but wise, such as: always be the first to say hello; have a place for everything and put everything in its place; everything will work out – God is in control; and life is what you make it. 
Joan is survived by her children Melissa, Ken, Steve and Ryan and their spouses Todd, Karen and Jamie; her grandchildren Jena, Braden, CJ, Chase, Mia and Riley; and her siblings Valerie Dumitru, Linda VanCleve and Charlie Taranto.

A memorial service will be held in Joan’s honor on Saturday, March 9, at 11 a.m. at the New Heights Baptist Church, main campus. Donations may be made in Joan’s honor to the Ray Hickey Hospice Home, where Joan died peacefully, surrounded by love, and with faith that she was going to heaven to be with Gene, who passed away there, in the same room, just six months prior.