1932-2020
Joan B. Kitchens died March 1, 2020, at home in Newport Beach, with family present. She grew up in Schenectady, New York. As a girl, Joan fell in love with The West on a trip to visit grandparents in Montana and Colorado. She attended her father’s alma mater, University of Colorado, Boulder. While there, she met and married Bill Kitchens of Tucson, Arizona, in 1952. They moved to the Newport-Costa Mesa area in 1956 and raised their family here. Bill predeceased her in 2009. Joan is survived by her children David (Leyda), Robert, Susan (Jan Martin), James, and Tom Kitchens, grandchildren Haley, Drew, Jeremy, Valerie, Tyra, Jake, nieces and nephews, and extended family.
While her children were young, Joan completed her English degree at Cal State Long Beach. She worked as a substitute teacher, but teaching was difficult with very young children at home. She found a more flexible alternative. Joan purchased a small house to rent out, and, in time, traded up to own multi-unit rentals. Joan performed as much hands-on maintenance as she could. (As her children grew older, she gave them summer/weekend jobs painting apartments between tenants). More than two decades after her first rental purchase, Joan put her paint rollers and brushes away after trading up to a professionally-managed rental located farther away.
In the early 1970s Joan and friends founded CRUD — Citizens to Recycle Usable Discards, an endeavor to recycle bottles and cans. She was a founding supporter of Newport Beach’s Environmental Nature Center. She was a supporter of Friends of the Newport Bay, and gave naturalist walk-and-talks at both locations. In addition to local natural history, she was interested in Native American basketry and served as a docent at the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles.
Joan came from life-long learners and she passed on that tradition. She never met a museum she didn’t like. The same is true for libraries, state parks, and national parks. Many a time she’d approach a museum guard and ask, “What’s your favorite part of this exhibit?”
Joan saw worth in people no matter their background or station, and instilled that in her family. On vacation trips to Baja California, she instructed her children, “We are guests in their country; we treat the people with respect.”
Joan was a bargain hunter. She taught two generations of offspring the finer points of thrift-shopping, including how to tell organic fabric (silk, cotton) from synthetic, by feel.
Joan’s home and table were open to friends of her children. There are many who think of her as their second mother. Joan found ways to enrich the lives of her children, their friends, or nieces and nephews. Whether it was a thrift-shop find, an interesting library-sale book, a relevant newspaper clipping, or a road trip to visit a national park, she shared interests, knowledge, objects, and experiences. Always ready with a story or fact from a book she’d read, her trademark conversational hook was “And the interesting thing is…”
Joan created and funded scholarships at Orange Coast College to memorialize family and dear friends. Many recipients are first-generation scholars.
Joan stayed active with water exercise. She said, “I even made a whole new set of friends in my 80s—my swim buddies.” In her final weeks as she stared at a diagnosis of metastasized cancer, Joan repeatedly said, “I’ve had 87 good years. I feel very fortunate and I have no regrets.”
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial tributes be made to: Newport Bay Conservancy newportbay.org. In light of COVID-19, plans for a memorial service are on hold until a later date. UPDATE: Memorial will be held September 25, 2021; see susankitchens.com/joanmemorial for information.