Joan Foster Hinrichs passed away on Thursday, August 13, 2023. She was 86 years old and had been a resident of River Hills Village for the past five years.
Born in Keokuk Iowa, she was the middle child of five siblings to William Theodore Foster and Lorene (Rader) Foster. Her father, after enlisting in the Navy, was tragically struck down by Nephritis when she was only nine years old. Growing up near Rees Park, Joan attended Lincoln Elementary and Keokuk Middle and High School. She would leave the city for Wartburg College, part of a new wave of first-generation post war college attendees. It is at Wartburg that she met Harold “Harry” Hinrichs, marrying him in the Second Presbyterian Church on South 7th Street, nearby to her childhood home. She left Wartburg after two years and received her two-year diploma in Parish Worship to support Harry in his career as a theologian and founder of Caring Community.
Over the next thirty-two years she made homemaking her ambition, the impeccable pastor’s wife to two congregations with three model children. She had a gift in the kitchen, always making and baking for others as well as sewing and gardening. Moving from Iowa to Oregon, California, Massachusetts and finally to Chicago initially to support Harry’s theological training. Chicago was the first city she could call home. After Chicago it would be Green Bay, then Minneapolis and finally Milwaukee.
Joan worked as an executive assistant first with the University of Minnesota Hospitals and Clinics followed by working with Caring Community Incorporated, the Next-Door Foundation, Inc. in early childhood development, and the Milwaukee School of Engineering–School of Nursing, and finally at Luther Manor in the department of Community Service. Divorced in 1989, she considered a return to Keokuk, renewing her childhood friendships. The past twenty-five years saw her retire and then make a try at living in Los Angeles while visiting her accomplished children in places like New York City and Italy, before finally returning to the city of her birth, to live at the Hotel Iowa on Main Street.
Living in Green Bay would make Joan a lifelong Green Bay Packer fan and stock certificate holder. But her experience living on Chicago’s south side from 1962-1969 was more defining, showing her to be a woman of moral purpose, social responsibility, and resolve as she intuitively stood up to racist taunts during the riots that shook the city. Her daughter, Renata Hinrichs, memorialized a scene from Joan’s life in her play, “Random Acts”.
Joan is survived by her three children, Renata Hinrichs (Todd Johnson), Erika Hinrichs-Biehle (Frederick Biehle) of New York City, and Harold Hinrichs (Felicia Beanum) of Los Angeles; three grandchildren, Lincoln Hinrichs, Zora Hinrichs and Calder Biehle; as well as her four siblings, Eloise McWaters, Theodore Foster (Dorothy), Milton Foster (Linda), and Louie Foster (Beverly).
Her former husband Harry Hinrichs predeceased her on July 8 of this year.
The Family is planning a Celebration in Keokuk, Iowa, early summer 2024. The family will be sending invitations to family and friends for the event.
The Vigen Memorial Home in Keokuk, Iowa is assisting the family with arrangements.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.vigenmemorialhome.com.
