M. Joan Richie

M. Joan Richie, age 90, passed peacefully into eternal life on April 1, 2017 in Hudson, WI with family members at her side. Born in Hudson on Oct 13, 1926, to John and Kate Ryan, Joan graduated from Hudson High School with the Class of ’44 and earned her RN degree from Northwestern Hospital School of Nursing as part of the WWII Army Nurses Corp. She married George Richie on June 17, 1950 in Hudson where they raised their seven children.

She is survived by sons David (Tracee Hoel), Tony (Karen), John (LeaAnn), Mike (Mary), Matt (Mary), and Joe (Dawn), son-in-law Frank Rhoades, sisters Colleen (Tom) Kealy and Dewey (Ed) Foster, grandchildren Chris (Nicole), Matt (Lisa), Mike (Janine), Joe, Sally (Devon), Annie (John), Jackie (Walker), Frank (Grace), David, Abby, Emma, Claire, Jack, Katie, George, Nora, Sam (Sarah), Paul (Anna), Patrick (Anna), Max and Luke as well as great-grandchildren Nate, Owen, Joanne, and Kit. She is preceded in death by her husband George, sisters Kathleen Larsen, Patricia Foy and Shirley Huser, daughter Kitty Rhoades, daughter-in-law Jeanne, and granddaughter Chloe.

A lifelong resident of Hudson, Joan lived a simple life of dedicated service, unwavering faith, and unending love for her family and her community. Through St Patrick’s Catholic Church and its sister parish in Guatemala, St Croix County home health care and meals on wheels she touched countless lives across the county and the school district, leaving each one better off as a result. All who knew her would agree that Joan was a mother to so many more than seven and she truly lived an “Extraordinary Ordinary Life.”