IN MEMORIAM: Joan E. Fluke, 80;

In Later Years, Coloradan Traveled 

HARTWICK – Joan (Joanie) Elizabeth (Thompson) Fluke, 80, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, July 23, 2019, in her home in Hartwick, where she lived with her daughter Karen and family.

She was born on Feb. 18, 1939, in Leesville, La., to Cecil Eugene and Edith May Thompson. She moved to Lamar, Colo., in her early years.  She attended and graduated from Lamar High School in 1957, then attended Lamar Community College.

It was in Lamar while Joan was a car-hop at the local A&W drive-in that she met her future husband, and love of her life, Richard Fluke from Eads, Colo.  When he asked her on their first date, Joan said, “ I can’t go out with a perfect stranger.” Dickie replied, “I’m in luck because I’m not perfect”, and this was the beginning of a lifelong romance.  They married five months later on Jan. 18, 1958, in Eads, and lived there for 10 years.

They started their family and Joan elected to devote her time to being an amazing loving mother and homemaker. They had two girls, Diane in 1962, Karen in 1966.

In 1968 they moved back to Lamar, where Joan was a Girl Scout leader and Square Dance Set mother and enjoyed playing the organ with Dick singing by her side. After the children were older, Joan began working at Sears part-time, joined a bowling league, played volleyball and competitive tennis,  judged gymnastics, and became passionate about organic gardening.

Joan was an avid reader, sharp-witted, enjoyed writing children’s stories, and brilliant with crossword puzzles. She was a beautiful seamstress and later discovered that she was a talented sketch artist. She lived in Lamar until a few years after her husband died in December 1990.

After the loss of Dick,  Joan busied herself with volunteering with the children’s reading program at Washington Elementary and later learned bridge, joined a bridge club, and learned to play the bells with the group at the local Methodist Church.

She began traveling with friends and family throughout Colorado, to New York, Toronto, Louisiana, California and Oregon. She moved to Hartwick, New York in 2004 to live with her youngest daughter Karen and family. During these years, she helped with her grandchildren, planned and developed a beautiful organic vegetable garden, helped tend to the chickens, goats, and other variety of farm animals, helped with various fundraisers, and traveled to Quebec and Ontario, Maine, Florida and the Virgin Islands, and throughout the northern East Coast.  Joan is remembered most for being a thoughtful, kind, and sweet soul with an unconditional loving heart.

Joan is survived by her daughter Diane Freed of Colorado Springs, Colo., as well as daughter Karen Fluke-Agostino and her husband Rico Agostino of Hartwick; crandchildren Randy Gotovich and Angela Washburn of Colorado Springs, and Gracie, Ben, Maya and Huey Agostino of Hartwick; great-grandchildren Dylan and Brinley Washburn of Colorado Springs; Sister Nellie Bauer of Aurora, Colo.; nephews Tab Bailor of Bel Aire, Kans., Jeff McNeely of Goodland, Kans., and Micheal Bauer of Aurora; Nieces: Sue Bailor Roth of Garden City, Kans., Bev Sammons of Denver, Sandy Ferguson of Granbury, Texas, Darla Duboy of Pueblo, Colo., Dana Lane of Lakin, Kans. Lisa Heise Tauer of Las Vegas, Nev., Lindsay Bauer, of Aurora, Colo., Shelly Scherer of Steamboat Springs, Colo., Jordan Fagan of Aurora, Colo.; and son-in-law Jerry Gotovich of Colorado Springso.

In addition to her husband and parents, she was predeceased by brothers Sherman Thompson in 1963, and Cecil ‘Tom’ (Sunny) Thompson in 2015.

The Celebration Of Life will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 18, at All Souls Unitarian Church,  730 N. Tejon St. Colorado Springs, Co, 80903; officiated by Revered Nori Rost.

Memorial donation may be made to Catskill Area Hospice.