Joann Hamm

JoAnn Marie Friesen Hamm was born at home in Meade, Kansas on May 19, 1935...the fourth of six children born to Martin and Marie Friesen. She grew up on the farm, doing chores and milking cows. She shared a (cold!) room with her younger sister Roberta, and always had lots of fun with her siblings and cousins at family gatherings. She attended Pleasant Hill School through 8th grade. She graduated from Meade Bible Academy, which was located just across the road from their long driveway, in 1953. She came to faith at a young age and was baptized in a farm pond as an outward sign of her desire to follow Jesus Christ for the rest of her life.

Music was always a part of JoAnn's life. She started playing the piano around the age of 4 and took piano lessons for a short while. As a young girl, she began playing for church services and then for the choir. She also played piano for various school functions. In high school, she worked as a janitor at the school and saved the money she earned to buy an accordion and a trumpet. Her musical talents and abilities grew, and she continued to purchase and learn how to play new instruments throughout her adult life.

On December 29, 1953, JoAnn married her high school sweetheart, Willis Hamm. Three weeks later they moved to Denver, Colorado to perform their 1-W service. A son, Verle, was born in Denver in 1955. After completing their service, they moved back to Kansas and then to Oklahoma where they tried farming for a while. A daughter, Melody, was born in 1958 in Liberal, Kansas. They moved back to Denver in 1960 when Willis was offered a job as a factory superintendent for RC Hollow Metal Company.

JoAnn worked as a home-maker and part-time as a teacher's aide. She loved being outdoors, working in her yard and at the farm in Louisville, camping, traveling, and going to family reunions. She loved the holidays and always made them special. She participated in various women's Bible studies, women's ministry activities, and Christian Women's Club for many years. She especially enjoyed singing in the church choir and the Applewood Senior Choir, and sharing her musical talents with others through family programs and playing piano in church and for weddings and funerals of friends and family. She loved attending hymn sings and concerts and also loved attending the school programs and sporting events of her grandkids and great-grandkids.

JoAnn was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She will be remembered for her musical talents, her faith in God and her desire to share it, and her love of family. She will be greatly missed.

Survivors include her husband, Willis Hamm of Lakewood, Colorado; her children, Verle (Dawn) Hamm of Commerce City, Colorado and Melody (Bruce) Brandt of Littleton, Colorado; her grandchildren, Alyssa (JW) Hoffman, Randi (Harper) West, Jason Brandt, Lance (Emily) Brandt; and her great-grandchildren: Cash and Jesse Hoffman and Hindes, Charlie and Cooper West.

A visitation will be held for JoAnn on Friday, November 6th from 5 o'clock pm to 7 o'clock pm at the Horan & McConaty Family Chapel, 3101 S. Wadsworth Blvd., Lakewood.

Donations may be made in JoAnn's name to Samaritan's Purse at https://www.samaritanspurse.org/

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