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Joan (Joanne) Massmann Baron

01.10.11

Joan (Joanne to friends) Massmann Baron, long-time resident of Slidell and New Orleans, LA, died of a stroke at the age of 80 on Thursday, September 15, 2011, in Jacksonville, Florida. She was born on June 9, 1931, in Pittsburg to the late Albert and Abbie Cahill Massmann. Preceded in death by her brothers, Albert P. and John “Jack” F. (ordained Father Albert, Order of St. Benedict). She is survived by her husband of 53 years, Stanley Alphonse Baron; three daughters: Jane Hyland of Oakland, CA, Elizabeth Adams of Jacksonville, FL, and Julie Sheffield of Baton Rouge, LA; sons-in-law Ray Adams and Alexander Sheffield; and five granddaughters: Ellen Cahill Adams, Sarah Elizabeth Adams, Louise Carroll Adams, Anna Baron Sheffield and Sophie Baron Sheffield. She is also survived by her siblings Mary Massmann Witt, Patrick Massmann, and 17 nieces and nephews. She attended St. Mary’s High School in Pittsburg and graduated from The College of St. Teresa in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1953. In 1955, she moved to New Orleans and became one of the first Certified Professional Secretaries in Louisiana. She worked for Kaiser Aluminum, New Orleans Magazine, and Herron Wire for 30 years. She moved to Slidell in 1970 and lived on Bayou Liberty. She attended Saint Genevieve Chuch-often by boat. In 1976 she donated one of her kidneys to her older brother, Jack, who lived another 30 years (unusual, even today). Her passion for archaeology led her to dig for prehistoric man on the island of Majorca, Spain, in 1984 with Earthwatch. In 1986, she traveled to Ireland with Earthwatch to search the dirt for work flint made into tools which would prove the existence of Mesolithic man in southeast Ireland. She was a voracious reader and inspired a love of reading in her nieces, nephews, daughters and granddaughters. She donated her body to science for medical research (medcure.org). On her desk was Fr. Francis Xavier Lasance’s “Prayer for a Happy Death”: ‘O Jesus, while adoring thy last breath, I pray thee to receive mine. In the uncertainty whether I shall have command of my senses when I shall depart out of this world, I offer thee from this moment my agony and all the pain of my passing away. Thou art my father and my saviour, and I give back my soul into thy hands. I desire that my last moment may be united to the moment of thy death, and that the last beat of my heart may be an act of pure love of thee. Amen.’

Source: Pittsburg Morning Sun