Joan Maxine (Patten) Kind, 88, died April 2, 2024 in Riverview, Florida of complications from Covid-19 and a hip fracture sustained in a fall on March 26.
Joan was born September 23, 1935 in a house near Claremore, Oklahoma. Her parents, Thomas Magirl Patten and Ollie Oake Patten, were both widowed with children when they married. They subsequently had two more children, Joan and her brother Gordon. Late in life, she frequently reminisced on the adventures of growing up on a farm with a large family and older siblings who doted on "little Joan".
Their single-story farm house had no running water, no central heat and no electricity. Subsisting on fish caught from the Verdi Gris River, income from town jobs, and the meager harvests of post-Dust Bowl agriculture, the family of nine weathered the Great Depression and the domestic privations of World War II. The smell of dill pickles always reminded her of when her entire family would shelter from thunderstorms and the threat of tornadoes in a small dirt cellar as the oldest and strongest young men would hold down the door, battered by rain and ferocious winds.
In the middle of World War II, her father, a Navy veteran of World War I, took a job at the McDonnell Douglas aerospace factory in Tulsa, OK. She always remembered the wonder she felt at age 8 when the family moved into a home in town that had modern amenities. For the first few days the children could not stop amazing themselves by needlessly flushing toilets and turning lights on and off.
Joan had a lifelong sympathy for the poor, the laborer and the racially oppressed, and professed a robust liberal philosophy. In early life her views were based on the teachings of Jesus, and later they took on a humanistic perspective cultivated from a lifetime of reading and learning. She followed current events avidly, donated generously to liberal causes, and was a frequent election volunteer for the Democratic party.
Gleefully argumentative, fluent in German, enthusiastic at the piano, indefatigable in the garden, and gifted at the easel and drawing board, Joan had many talents and interests. Her parents' pursuit of Pentecostalism led her to Tulsa's Apostolic Bible College in her teens, where she met the love of her life, Reinhart Kind.
He was a young German studying to become a pastor, who had traveled alone to America on a student visa. It seemed a match made in heaven: their birthdays were only one day apart! Together, they graduated, got married, and traveled to Munich Germany (with a memorable stop in Paris along the way) where Reinhart pastored a small church accompanied by Joan who played the piano. In July of 1956, to their immense joy, Joan gave birth to their first son, Thomas Larry Kind.
In 1958, they returned to the United States and settled in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1960, when there was snow on the ground in Kansas City the entire month of March, Joan gave birth to their second son, Mark Kind. Two years later, their third son, Anthony Reinhart Kind, arrived. As Reinhart developed a career as a travel agent, Joan got her third child Anthony into school and in about 1967 took a job at the Internal Revenue Service. There she worked until retirement in 1999, holding positions in Kansas City, Denver and Dallas. True to her egalitarian values, she also volunteered as a chapter leader for the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) where she actively advocated for the rights of her fellow workers.
In 1971, the family fulfilled Joan's dream of living near the Colorado mountains when they moved to Arvada, a Denver suburb. Nearly every weekend became an adventure as Joan would organize either a camping trip or a Sunday drive to the mountains, taking breaks only for monthly church services Reinhart officiated for a loyal group of German-speaking immigrants.
Over the years, Joan and the family attended church regularly in the Denver area, progressively from Redeemer Temple in the early 70s, to the First Denver Friends Church in the late 70s and early 80s, and the Arvada Mennonite Church in the 80s and 90s. She ceased regular church attendance after moving to Thornton, Colorado in 2002.
Joan was an enthusiastic believer in the value of education and intellectual pursuits. She was an avid reader who never lost her love of books and learning. She actively supported the higher education pursuits of her children and after many years of night study she proudly graduated in the late 1980s with a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Metropolitan State College of Denver, CO.
Joan took extraordinary delight in her grandchildren, all of whom fondly remember her generosity of time and gifts. She grabbed the check at every family restaurant outing, and paid for airline or train tickets whenever family wanted to visit. Her strengths, talents, and encouragement provided invaluable inspiration to her grandchildren.
Reinhart and Joan retired around the turn of the century, and enjoyed many years of extended visits to Europe, where they often wintered in the South of France. They enjoyed gathering in Denver for French lessons on a regular basis with a small group of fellow acolytes of a local French language teacher. These informal gatherings in each other's homes were some of the social highlights of their retirement.
In 2021, the combination of Joan's severe health problems and the worldwide coronavirus pandemic forced them to leave their beloved Colorado and move to the warmer climate, cleaner air, and lower altitude of Valrico, Florida, where they resided near their youngest son Anthony and his wife, Marilyn Guion. Together, their son and daughter-in-law nurtured them back to better health, and they subsequently bought a home in Venice, Florida. Following the death of Reinhart, her husband of 68 years, Joan moved to a Tampa-area assisted living facility in February 2024.
Joan is survived by their children: Thomas Larry Kind (Mary McCotter), Mark Kind (Jerrie Lynn Kind), Anthony Reinhart Kind (Marilyn Guion). She is also survived by her brother, Gordon Patten (Dorothy), and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren: Deborah Kind, Sarah Joan Walworth (Joshua Walworth, deceased), Ian McCartney, Garrett Reinhart Wiens-Kind, Melanie Wiens-Kind, Lindsey Hensley (Blake), Drake Johnston, George Walworth, Corrina Walworth, Isaac Reinhart Walworth and Aurora Rose Hensley. Joan was preceded in death by her parents, brothers Paul Graves and Roy Patten, and her sisters: Charlotta Patten, Augusta Green and Orlena Joy Barnett.
Joan also leaves behind the many members of Reinhart's family in Germany who will always hold fond memories of her in their hearts.
