COON RAPIDS, MINNESOTA – Joan Elizabeth McElwee, 79, of 11350 Martin St. NW died Sunday, February 3, 2019.  

Joan was life long learner.  She attended Flat Rock High School, Flat Rock, Michigan and was awarded the honor of being Valedictorian for her class in 1957. She attended Albion College at Albion, Michigan her freshman year and then transferred to Iowa Wesleyan College, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.  There she received her BA in Elementary Education in 1961. After college, she and her husband, Famous McElwee whom she met at college, were recruited by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and were assigned teaching positions at Greasewood Boarding School, Ganado, Arizona on the Navajo Reservation where they taught until 1967.  They moved to San Bernardino, California where both taught in that school district. Even after retirement, Joan kept up her love of learning by attaining two Master’s Degrees and various other degrees/certificates in teaching gifted children, body and spiritual healing, massage therapy, religion, music, meditation and human anatomy.  She was also an ordained minister.

Joan was born on May 3, 1939 in Monroe, Michigan to John and Esther Langs of Flat Rock, Michigan where she grew up.  She married Famous McElwee on June 20, 1961 in Kansas City, Kansas. They divorced in 1971.

She is survived her son, Matthew McElwee of Plymouth, Minnesota who has two sons and a daughter.  She also leaves a sister Sue Davidson of Overland Park, Kansas, one niece and two great nieces, along with many friends who will sorely miss her.  She is also survived by a estranged daughter, Kendra of Tucson, Arizona.

No services were held.  As requested by Joan, she donated her body to the University of Minnesota Medical School Anatomy Bequest Program to aid in medical  education and research.

Published on February 15, 2019