Joan Florence Manchak

Our beloved mother Joan Florence Manchak passed away peacefully on April 7th after a twenty year battle with Parkinson’s. She had an extraordinary attitude of acceptance and courage, gentleness and kindness, always putting others first.

Joan was born on May 1st, 1932 in Colfax, WA the daughter of Joseph Stravens and Florence Cronin (whose cousin was the writer A.J. Cronin) and was the fourth of seven children. She attended Holy Names Academy in Spokane and the University of Seattle . She moved to Long Beach, CA in 1954for modeling and secretarial work and met Frank Manchak, a civil engineer whom she married. They moved to Madrid, Spain where they lived for eight years and had four of their six children. While in Spain, Joan studied oil painting with Concha Maria Navas and Spanish at the University of Madrid. After a brief return to California where the two yougest were born, the family then moved to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and Singapore for a total of six years, adapting easily and enjoying the foreign life style with the many exotic customs and celebrations of the Malaysians, Chinese and Indian people as well as the British influence. Joan learned to master the skills of batik and Chinese brush painting.

In 1972 the family came back to the States and settled in Santa Barbara where Joan joined the SB Art Association among others. Inspired by the coast line, the Santa Ynez valley and the Southwest, she formed a large collection of landscape and seascape oil paintings as well as florals and abstracts. Joan had her work shown in many galleries and won numerous awards including 1st place in the 95′ Semana Nautica Art Show.

Joan was married to Frank for fifty seven years until his passing in Oct 2012. She is survived by her children; Susan,Frank (Gloria) Michael (Catherine) Marie and Peter, son in law Dale and grandchildren Jon & Crystal. Her daughter Tina Cummings sadly passed away May 1st,on Joan’s Birthday. We will hold them both in our hearts forever.”And in the end I will seek you out amongst the stars”

Thanks to Visiting Nurses & Hospice Care. There will be a gathering of friends & family at the Glen Annie Club on June 2nd at noon.