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During our high school years at MC Joan and I had a wonderful relationship. She was always making everyone laugh and we had such fun. When I mentioned her name at home my Dad told me that his grandmother in Ireland had the last name McNaboe so I told Joan where my family was from. She went home and found out that her family also came from County Longford, Ireland and after that we always joked that we were cousins. When I told her that Bill Grady and I were cousins and that maybe we were all related she got a big kick out of that. I lost touch with her after graduation but did reconnect with her Mom years later when my family was going to Longford. We visited her relatives but they did not know their heratige. I heard she had died and when I saw the memory page in our web site I called one of her brothers who told me she had been a teacher at St. Monica's and that the kids had loved her. She had never married and sadly died of breast cancer in 1989. Rest in peace "cousin". Sheila keena Brossier
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Diane Gooch (Bateman)
Thanks Sheila. Joan was a classmate friend and always fun to be around. I can see why she was a successful teacher. Wasn't she involved in sports? I wasn't but that didn't mean I was exempt from wearing our flattering gym suit. I see Joan in that suit and I can hear her making a "wise crack" and we would all chuckle. I am sorry she died so young. I would have enjoyed seeing her at our reunion.
Antone Sousa
From: Kathy McNaboe Denison
Auntie Joan was born in San Francisco in 1943 and moved with her family to San Anselmo in 1951 where she attended St Anselm School and then Marin Catholic High. She graduated from Dominican College in 1965. Joan started her teaching career at her alma mater St Anselm’s and later taught second grade at St Monica School in San Francisco until shortly before her death in 1989 of breast cancer. Joan loved teaching and was truly a gifted teacher. She had a collection of notes which started off with the words: “ I want to tell on ____________ because ______________”. She never had to listen to the tattles personally, she would just hand them the slip of paper to fill out. It made her students stop and think about what they wanted to say and how to write it up. You can imagine the notes she received from second graders! Joan traveled widely, loved living in San Francisco, and was a terrific and much loved