Services for Joan Fahrenwald, of Conde will be 10:30 a.m., on Tuesday, September 2nd at the United Methodist Church in Conde. Rev. Rob Moorlach will officiate. Burial will follow in the Crandall Cemetery under the direction of Paetznick-Garness Funeral Chapel, Groton.
Visitation will be held at the church on Tuesday beginning at 9:00 a.m. and services will be live streamed at GDILIVE.COM
Betty Joan Fahrenwald Joan, to all who knew her passed away peacefully on August 21, 2025 at the age of 90. She had been in hospice care at Edgewood Senior Living in Watertown for three weeks and had been surrounded by family members during that time. When Jesus called, this wonderful woman of great faith and devotion triumphed over her cancer and soared high to her eternal home with Him. There, she was happily reunited with Myron, her beloved husband of nearly 69 years, who had passed three months earlier.
Joan was a Kansas farm girl, raised with Midwestern values of hard work, Christian faith and morals, and devotion to ones family qualities that served her well throughout her nine decades of life. She was born on the family farm near Geneseo, KS on August 1, 1935. She was the oldest of three children born to John and Leota (Wikoff) McWilliam. She had two younger brothers, Vance and Marvin. Her grade school years were split between four different schools, with the family moving to another farm near Leon, KS when she was about seven. She attended high school a short distance away, in El Dorado, graduating in May 1953. All through grade school and high school, Joan was involved in 4-H and loved farm life with her cats, dog, and Shetland ponies. In high school, she enjoyed chorus, debate, and acting in plays.
Joans first year of college (1953-54) was at Bethany Fine Arts College in Lindsborg, KS. She majored in Music Education and minored in English. After only one year there, John and Leota sold the farm and bought a motel at Emporia. Joan transferred to Kansas State Teachers College and lived at home to help with work at the motel after classes (1954-55).
During the summer of 1955, Joan attended a Leadership Training Camp for United Methodist Church (UMC) Wesley Foundation officers at Lake Poinsett in South Dakota. While there, she met the love of her life, Myron Fahrenwald, a Conde native who was a pre-med student at the USD in Vermillion. It was love at first sight. Both were smitten and they corresponded via letters (no phones!) during their junior year of college. They were married the following summer, on August 5, 1956, in Emporias UMC. Each was 21 years old. It would prove to be a fruitful union under God that would last nearly seven decades, producing five children, 13 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren, with another due in November 2025 and yet another in January 2026. They had been joined first at the altar bu tthen were joined at the hip until Myrons death in May 2025. It was never Myron OR Joan; it was always Myron AND Joan. They were seldom ever apart during their entire marriage.
For her senior year, Joan transferred to USD and graduated with her BA degree in 1957. During the 1957-58 school year at Meckling, SD, she taught elementary and high school vocal music, freshman and junior English, directed the junior class play, and prepared students for music contests. She and Myron lost their first baby, Mark, in December 1957.
In the fall of 1958, Myron and Joan moved to St. Louis, MO for Myron to finish his medical education at Washington University. While in St. Louis, Joan gave birth to Martin (Marty) in 1959 and Myrna in 1960. Myron earned his M.D. degree in May 1960, then the young family moved to Grand Rapids, MI for Myrons one-year internship. In 1961, the family settled in Redfield, where Myron started his practice as a family physician with the Redfield Clinic. In 1962, Carl was born and in 1964, Ruth was welcomed. Finally, in 1971, Paul joined the brood.
During the Redfield years, Joan enjoyed activities with the kids, teaching Sunday School and directing the junior high chorus at the UMC, helping with Brownies and Girl Scouts, and being a homemaker. They enjoyed many friends in the community.
In 1979, Myron left private practice to direct the ERat St. Lukes Hospital in Aberdeen. By then, only three of five kids remained at home and the family relocated to their beloved Fahrview, seven miles east of Conde. Joan became immersed in the Conde community; she taught Sunday School and directed both Bible School and the choir at UMC. She even did substitute teaching at Conde school when needed.
Joans love of music had been cultivated during childhood, singing duets with her wonderful mother. It blossomed throughout her life and culminated with performances she did with Myron she on keyboards, he on guitar over a period of many years in various situations. She organized and directed a community musical program for Condes Centennial celebration in 1986, played five years of Country Classic Jamborees for World Hunger at Conde UMC from 1988-1993, organized and performed in Crandall Fest events every Labor Day weekend from 1991-1998, and planned and executed big stage shows from 1997-2007 at their snowbird RV park in McAllen, TX. She played piano at various Conde area funerals and at Sunday morning Conde UMC services for many years, only ending when she and Myron moved to Edgewood in Watertown in March 2024.
Joan was an accomplished seamstress, who sewed dresses for both Myrna and Ruth, as well as Halloween costumes for Paul. She was an avid gardener, canning and pickling jars and jars of vegetables every fall. She was an outstanding cook, with fried chicken, apple and cherry pies, banana bread, and beef stroganoff among her specialties. She was a very capable archivist and scrap-booker, compiling voluminous albums of family history of both the Fahrenwalds and the McWilliams, as well as family photo albums for every year going back to the 1960s.
But, above all Joan was a wonderful, warm, kind, faithful, and loving daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She was adored by her husband and her large extended family, loved by her friends, and appreciated by all who met her. She influenced many young people, even outside her family circle, on their faith journeys to Jesus.
Joan is survived by her three sons Marty (Kathy) Fahrenwald of Watertown, Carl (Nancy) Fahrenwald of College Station, TX, and Paul (Sheri) Fahrenwald of Frisco, TX; two daughters Myrna (Glen) McBride of Choctaw, OK and Ruth (Jeff) Young of Conde; thirteen grandchildren, and fourteen great-grandchildren.
Joan was preceded in death by her husband Myron, her first-born son Mark, two brothers (Vance and Marvin), and her parents (John and Leota).
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