Joanne N. Meek

A Memorial Visitation for Joanne N. Meek, 94, of Palatine, will be held on Saturday, July 8, 2023, from 1:00 pm until 3:00 pm at the Ahlgrim Family Funeral Home, 201 N. Northwest Highway, Palatine. An Interment will be held privately at a later date.

Joanne passed away peacefully in her sleep on June 21, 2023. She was born in Chicago to the late Edwin M. and Mildred (Myhrman) Nixon on March 3, 1929. After graduating from Carl Schurz High School, she became a lightning-fast typist and an expert in Pitman shorthand.

Joanne always loved and remembered her parents and three brothers. She especially admired their ability to make the best of any situation through hard work, ingenuity, education, and faith. She was a caring and dutiful wife, and a loving mother of her two sons whom she raised as a single mom in the 1970’s. She supported her family using the secretarial skills she learned as a young woman, managing several offices at various companies. She was great at sewing and knitting, loved to travel, had a fantastic sense of humor, and was an excellent dancer. She often said her greatest achievement in life was being the mother of her two boys. This she did with fierce tenacity, in the face of great adversity, and always with unconditional love.

Joanne is survived by her sons, David (Cathy) Herndon, Wayne Herndon; stepson, William Meek; brother, Bruce Nixon; sister-in-law, Jeridith Nixon; nephews and nieces, Mark Nixon (Lisa Kohl), Ellen Poreda, Lynn (Michael) Cooney, Jill (Daniel) Anderson, Sharon (James) Myers, and Susan (Bill) McLeod, along with their children and grandchildren.

She is preceded in death by husbands, William W. Meek and William Brodie Herndon; brothers, Jack M. Nixon and Wayne R. Nixon; sisters-in-law, Lorraine Nixon, Carolyn Nixon; and nephew-in-law, Edward Poreda.

In lieu of flowers, donations will be appreciated in Joanne’s memory, to The American Heart Association.