Joan E. Gibbons Williams

May 15, 1926 - May 20, 2019

Joan E. Gibbons Williams, 93 Formerly of Gibbon Joan E. Gibbons Williams, 93, formerly of Gibbon, died Monday, May 20, 2019 in Tucson, AZ. A Mass of Christian Burial will be 10:30 am Friday, May 31, 2019 at St. James Catholic Church in Kearney. Father Joe Hannappel will officiate. Inurnment will follow at Riverside Cemetery in Gibbon. The family will receive friends 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. Thursday, May 30, 2019 at the O’Brien Straatmann Redinger Funeral Home in Kearney. Memorials are suggested to Gibbon Public Schools for teachers to buy supplies. Condolences may be shared online at www.osrfh.com. Services are entrusted to O’Brien Straatmann Redinger Funeral and Cremation Services. Joan E. (Mutchie) Gibbons Williams was born May 15, 1926 in Eddyville, Nebraska to Peter and Mary (Conroy) Mutchie. Joan graduated from Eddyville High School in 1944. She attended nurse’s training in Grand Island, Nebraska at St. Francis Hospital. In 1945 and 1946, she went to Bowling Green University in Ohio with her sister Ursula. Joan returned to Nebraska to attend Kearney State Teachers College. In 1947 she obtained her teaching certificate and started teaching at Sumner, Nebraska. Joan was united in marriage with Paul W. Gibbons of Poole, Nebraska at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Eddyville, Nebraska on August 17, 1948. They rented a farm south of Pleasanton, Nebraska for the first year and in October of 1949 they welcomed their only child, Mary. In March 1950, they purchased a farm north of Kearney where they lived until 1965. Through these years on the farm, Joan taught at several country schools in Buffalo County. In the fall of 1965 they moved to Gibbon, Nebraska due to her husband’s ill health. Joan finished her last 20 years of teaching as a 3rd grade teacher for Gibbon Public Schools. Her husband Paul died in January 1978. On August 5, 1980 she married Robert (Bob) Williams of Gibbon at St. James Catholic Church in Kearney, Nebraska. Left to cherish her memory are her daughter, Mary Gibbons; son, Randy Williams and wife Julie, daughter, Kristi Kunce and husband, William; son-in-law, Dan Weismann; grandchildren, Tony Ratka and wife Julie, Paul Swearingen and wife Crystal, Tori Johnston and husband Rob, Ryan Williams, Jolynn Williams, Grant Williams, Brandi Talabere and husband Brian, Amberlee Maybeno and husband Matt, Chelsea Kunce, Ian Weismann and Aaron Weismann; 14 great grandchildren; 5 great great grandchildren; She is also survived by her sister, Cecelia Hopper and numerous nieces and nephews. Joan was preceded in death by her parents; her husbands, Paul Gibbons and Bob Williams; her sister, Mary Mutchie; brother, Luke and wife Cora Mutchie; sister, Ursula and husband Leo Stander; brother-in-law, Fred Hopper; and daughter, Marcy Weismann.