Joanne L. Thurman
Joanne L. Thurman
Joanne L. Thurman
December 12, 1931 – July 21, 2016
Oskaloosa, Iowa | Age 84
Joanne LuWayne (Jacobs) Thurman, 84, of Oskaloosa, Iowa, passed away July 21, 2016. Joanne was born December 12, 1931, at the Mahaska County Hospital in Oskaloosa, Iowa.
Joanne is the oldest of three children, born to Raymond and Helen Jacobs. Second born, brother, Marion “Jake” and third child, Carolyn Sue, who died in infancy. Her parents, also born and raised, and then married and raised their children in Oskaloosa, Iowa until 1944 when they moved to Stockton, California. Raymond transferred to Stockton with the Railroad to assist in the transport of troops after World War II and Helen continued her work as a registered nurse.
Joanne attended Webster Elementary School in Oskaloosa until the family moved to Stockton, California.
The family had been faithful members of the Oskaloosa Free Methodist Church and faithful members in the Iowa Holiness Association Camp Meeting in University Park, Iowa where Joanne gave her heart and life to Christ at age five in the Children’s Ministry of the Camp Meeting. She was sanctified during her teen years at the altar of the Stockton First Church of the Nazarene. She attended the Stockton Public Schools and graduated from high school there. She started working part-time jobs as a teenager and developed a tremendous work ethic at a young age.
In 1951, Joanne decided to return to Oskaloosa and University Park where she enrolled in the Chicago Evangelistic Bible College in University Park. It was there that Joanne met Don Thurman, a fellow freshman at the college, when she served as the secretary for the Student Body Council and he served as the president of the Student Body Council. They fell in love and married on July 30, 1954, in the Stockton, California Church of the Nazarene with the Pastor Reverend Floyd Hawkins officiating. They returned to Iowa to complete their college training for the Pastoral Ministry and were appointed as Pastors of the Moravia Church of the Nazarene, Moravia, Iowa in August 1954. At that time, it was expected of the Pastor of the Moravia Church to also serve simultaneously as the Pastor of the Darbyville Community Church.
Pastor Don and Joanne served faithfully together for 35 years in the Pastoral Ministry in the Church of the Nazarene. During this time, Joanne not only served as a pastor’s wife, mother and very good cook, but she also served in the church as organist, soloist, choir member, and adult Bible teacher. Along with serving in the church, she also worked outside the home as a registered nurse in hospitals and doctors’ offices. During her retirement years, she worked part-time as a phlebotomist for insurance companies.
Don and Joanne had four children in their union: Carolyn Sue (Thurman) Johnson of Clovis, California; Kenneth Rae Thurman of Frisco, Texas; David Paul Thurman of Oskaloosa, Iowa; and Michael Joseph Thurman, of Palm Springs, California, who passed away in June 1998 at the young age of 38.
Joanne is survived by her husband Don; their three children; six grandchildren; six great grandchildren; and one great, great grandchild.
She is preceded in death by both of her parents, Raymond and Helen Jacobs; her sister, Carolyn Sue Jacobs; her brother, Jake Jacobs; her son, Michael Joseph; and her grandson, Paul Robert Thurman.
Funeral services will be held Tuesday, July 26, 2016, at 10 a.m. in the Gateway Church of the Nazarene in Oskaloosa with Reverends Bill Hines and Dave Childers officiating.
Burial will be in the University Park Cemetery in University Park. The Bates Funeral Chapel is in charge of the arrangements.
Visitation will begin Monday after 11 a.m. in the Bates Funeral Chapel and the family will be at the funeral chapel from 5-7 Monday evening to greet friends and relatives.
