VISITATION & SERVICES
Friday, December 20, 2024
at
Heritage Funeral Home
9200 S. 27th Street – Oak Creek, WI 53154

 

Visitation: 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Service: 11:30 AM

 

Private interment: Ascension Cemetery in Libertyville, Illinois

 

MEMORIALS

Family and friends are welcome to make donations to the Wisconsin Humane Society in her name, in lieu of flowers. You can donate online by clicking on the following link:  https://www.wihumane.org/

 

Joan Margaret McKillen

Joan Margaret McKillen, 92, longtime resident of Greendale, Wisconsin, left us peacefully on December 12th, after visits from her family and friends.

Born in Waukegan, Illinois on June 19th, 1932, to Bertha and John Sundstrom, Joan had an older sister, Judy, and a younger brother, John. She is with them all now in Heaven.

Joan possessed an independent streak: she left home at age 18, moved into a room at the YWCA, worked full time as a clerk at Abbott Labs, and enjoyed attending USO dances in her early twenties.

At age 28, she met William “Bill” McKillen, quite by accident. He was at fault. The two were playing volleyball at the “Y”, but on adjacent courts, and he served a ball that went awry and hit her on the head. He walked over to apologize, and they married soon after.

After brief stints in Waukegan and in Indianapolis, the newlyweds moved to Greendale, Wisconsin, where they raised five children: Maynard, Steven, Kathleen, Susan and Thomas.

As her children approached adolescence, Joan took a retail position at the Drew’s Discount Variety Store in Greendale. There she enjoyed the status of a minor local celebrity, due to her candor and wit. People felt at ease around her and enjoyed her company.

Some of her trademark humor came from exchanging quips with her father, John, a wit in his own right. Still more of her humor derived from a fondness for the comic strip “Pogo” by Art Kelly.

As her older children moved out to begin adult life, Joan adopted “Baraboo”, a Maine Coon cat, from the Humane Society. This coal-black feline was a crash course in Cat Culture. She loved every minute of it. After Baraboo departed this world, Joan adopted “Tux”, whose name is also a description. Tux was a very social cat, who greeted and “spoke to” all visitors.

And while Joan and her neighborhood friends watched their children graduate, marry, and begin new lives, they laughed and marveled about their own changing lives at a regular gathering of women that became known as the “Meadow Drive Mafia”.

Her marriage to Bill lasted 58 years, until his death in 2016. We miss him still.

In addition to her five children, Joan is survived by her granddaughters, Colleen and Lisa, and her great grandson, Wesley.

Flowers & Gifts