White Funeral Home
400 First Street West
Independence, Iowa 50644

Cedar Rapids – Joanne Lois Rowe, 88 years old, of Cedar Rapids, IA, and formerly of Independence, IA, died of natural causes on Thursday, February 18, 2021, at Cottage Grove Place in Cedar Rapids.

Private funeral services will be Monday, February 22, 2021, at White Funeral Home, Independence, with burial at Wilson Cemetery, Independence.

Memorials will be directed to Friends of Fontana Park and the Community Baptist Church of Marion.

Joanne was born September 8, 1932, in Melrose Park, IL, the daughter of Max Stoll and Alida Mae (Jensen) Stoll. She graduated from Proviso High School in Maywood, IL with the class of 1951. She attended Wheaton College and Iowa State University, where she received a degree in Home Economics. She later earned her teaching certificate and a Master’s Degree in Primary Education from the University of Northern Iowa.

On May 14, 1955, she was united in marriage to Harold Baker Rowe, Jr. in Oak Park, IL. The family made their home in rural Independence where they raised their family and farmed. Joanne was a schoolteacher at West Elementary for over 25 years.

She was active in the Independence community and enjoyed traveling, especially wintering in Texas. Joanne was an active member of Hope Wesleyan church in Independence for many years and she attended Community Baptist Church of Marion when she moved to Cedar Rapids.

Joanne loved her family and friends and enjoyed talking, laughing and joking with them. She encouraged her children’s education and was their "grammar and spelling policewoman". Joanne had a wide very of interests through the years including stamp collecting, playing the piano, sewing, art, reading, word puzzles, board games, growing flowers and bird watching. She enjoyed the outdoors, especially watching and hearing the flow of streams and rivers and "listening to the water lap” on the shores of lakes and oceans. She helped create an outdoor nature classroom at West Elementary, developing an interest in native plants. She was a volunteer at Fontana Park. Joanne was a kind and generous soul with a never-ending curiosity about the world. She will be deeply missed.

Joanne Rowe is survived by three sons, Hal (Debbie) Rowe of Spokane, Washington, Ken Rowe (Kathi-Lynn Blomquist) of Edina, Minnesota, and David (Trang) Rowe of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Four grandchildren, Rachelle, Eric, Madeleine and Graham, also survive her.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Harold, in 2012; one brother, Max Stoll, Jr.; and one sister, Shirley Friedl.

White Funeral Home, Independence, Iowa, is in charge of arrangements.