Joann Marie Inks was born on July 24, 1935 at the family farm home on the prairie near Rockham, South Dakota to parents Arthur
and Florence (McGinnis) Nielsen.
It was a hot harvest day and when Joann was about to arrive, her Dad rushed by car to a neighbor's home to phone the doctor, and that neighbor lady then went to the Nielsen home to help out.
The doctor was Dr. Potter from Redfield about 20 miles away. Dr. Potter had been the much loved family doctor for the McGinnis family for about 20 years, including the birth of Joann's sister, Arlene and her twin brothers Rollie and Bob.
The Nielsen children attended a one-room school about a mile from their home. They would have a ride to school, but they would walk home across the flat prairie land and maybe wave at the train engineer and the passengers as the train passed by.
In 1942 Joann move with her family to a dairy farm in northern Wisconsin. The school was about half a mile from the family home, a larger brick building with more students.
One day Joann went for a walk to the home of her friend, Gail, who live half a mile away. One of Dad's sheep followed Joann to Gail's home and thereafter Gail's Dad called Joann Mary.
In 1946 Joann and her family moved from Wisconsin's rolling hills, abundant trees, dairy farms and snowy hills where their toboggan was well used for fun, play and recreation, to Carson Hill.
Home was now the gold country of Calaveras County, California and also where her Grandma McGinnis and Aunt Bessie resided. Joann finished elementary school and attended Bret Harte High School, graduating in 1953.
Joann married classmate Robin Inks and they were the parents of 3 children: Grover Ronald, Patricia Joann and Richard Lee. The children attended Bret Harte High School also.
In 1960 the family moved to Redding for Robin to attend Shasta College. While there Joann also attended Shasta College, earning an associate's degree in Accounting.
Joann worked as a teller for Bank of America when the children were little. In March of 1967 Joann went to work in the Calaveras County Treasurer Tax Collector until retiring in December of 1998 after 32 years in the office. She said she loved every day there.
When Joann became a grandmother, she asked her grandchildren to call her "Besta", a shortened version of the Danish term "Bestamor", which means "Grandmother". Joann's grandparents ha been immigrants from Denmark.
Her favorite times have been with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She enjoyed having family get-togethers at her house and getting friends from high school days together.
She often took the grandchildren skating, snow skiing and RV traveling. She spent many hours saving her many wonderful memories in beautiful hand crafted scrapbooks.
She was president of Bret Harte High School Alumni Committee and Treasurer of the Union Congregational Church.
Joann is survived by her husband Robin, three children Grover (Chris), Patty (Larry), and Richard (Jan), sister Arlene Nielsen, brother Robert Nielsen, 8 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren.
Joann bravely fought multi-myeloma cancer for the last 5 years. She will be truly missed. Funeral services will be held Saturday March 24, 2018 at 11 AM at the Union Congregational Church in Angels Camp. Interment will be at Altaville Protestant Cemetery.
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