|
September 1, 2009 by Wendy Ingram
They moved to Sacramento, California when Joan was in the fifth grade where she lived until moving to Placitas a few years after being married.
During high school Joan worked at a Catholic retreat house on weekends. In addition to being great fun, it was an extremely spiritual and rewarding experience. Several of her high school summers were spent near Nevada City, California as a youth camp counselor. She was quite proficient at riflery and archery. She is not sure who had more fun, the campers or the counselors.
Joan attended Sacramento State College. During the summer of her sophomore year, she participated in a European study tour sponsored by the Immaculate Heart College of Southern California. The group visited six countries.
This was beyond a beauty contest. The mission of the Camellia Festival was to promote good will for the Capitol City of California and the queen was considered a semi-official greeter for the city promoting good relationships within the community and neighboring cities.
A week of fanfare and festivities was followed by a year of visiting service organizations, children's hospitals and traveling to other cities including Seattle. She met dignitaries and celebrities. Ronald Regan was Governor of California and participated in some of the events. Joan also met Bill Cosby at Lake Tahoe and has a signed photograph with him.
During college, Joan met her husband Tony. He was just beginning his real estate career and after they married, Joan worked with him. Tony's dream was to return to Placitas where he was born. As a family of four, they relocated here in 1975. They soon began construction of their adobe home. It was a labor of love - doing much of the work themselves. They even obtained a permit from the Forest Service to cut trees from the Sandias to be used for vigas in their home.
Joan worked in customer service for PNM for fourteen years prior to taking an early retirement in 1993 to join Tony in his real estate business. Their company, Rio Sierra Realty, is located in the Placitas Village. Joan enjoys real estate and feels great satisfaction in helping people find their dream home or the perfect land to build on.
   Joan's hobbies and passions now are spending lots of time with her grandkids, gardening, reading, vacationing at the ocean, and she would like to get back into oil painting.
If she won the lottery she would make certain their future health care is assured, take the entire family on a wonderful cruise and donate to breast and prostate cancer research.
The person Joan most admires is her 92-year-old Mom who lives independently as much as possible and is a beautiful example of aging gracefully. A homemaker, she was always there for her children, encouraging them to reach for the stars. She also admires Tony who believes that luck just doesn't happen but success is the result of hard work combined with adventure as well as fun. And life has been an adventure!
Their best trip was to Bora Bora for ten days in 2007. They had a bungalow on the beach that added to the romance of the island venture. They love island vacations and snorkeling in clear beautiful ocean waters.
She and Tony love to remodel places and have renovated their offices as well as the house where Tony was born in the Village of Placitas. Joan and Tony moved to Placitas when it was very rural and they have worked side by side over the years in and around the Placitas Community. They helped form a 4-H group; Joan taught religion classes, Tony started a basketball team at Placitas Elementary, and both were involved with PTO. Tony has been president of the San Antonio de Las Huertas Land Grant since the mid '80's. Other organizations Joan has been involved with are St. Vincent de Paul, the Sandoval County Historical Society, was a member of Jardineros in the late 70's and 80's and was at one time vice-president. She is currently on the Placitas Library Advisory Council and a member of the Library Children's Committee.
 |
