Joan was a devout Catholic, a member of the Altar and Rosary Society of St. Angela Parish, a fervent member of the Legion of Mary, and a generous volunteer for the Little Sisters of the Poor. In keeping with her calling to be a witness to her Catholic faith, Grandma passed away on the Feast Day of the Assumption of Mary, 1994.
Joan was born in May of 1918. Her grandmother, in Ireland, Mary Ann Duhig Reynolds, passed away in June 1918, knowing the last of her oldest daughter, Mary Kate Reynolds Fitzgerald, children had been born.

As St. Patrick said in his Confessio:

" I must accept with equanimity whatever befalls me, be it good or evil, and always give thanks to God who taught me to trust in Him always without hesitation, and who must have heard my prayer, so that I, however ignorant I was, in the last days dared to undertake such a holy and wonderful work—thus imitating somehow those who, as the Lord once foretold, would preach His Gospel for a testimony to all nations before the end of the world. So we have seen it, and so it has been fulfilled: indeed, we are witnesses that the Gospel has been preached unto those parts beyond which there lives nobody. "


An Irish epitaph:

IHS

Here rest in peace the
lovely maid
here sleep in sweet repose
and thou
tho molder with the dust
thou art fairer than the rose


The Fitzgerald family was a member of St. Charles of Borromeo Church. Joan attended grammar school then, and at age 15, attended St. Mary's "commerical" High School, where she was taught typing and stenography, for one year. After graduation, Joan worked for a downtown company in her teenage years.

For a picture of St. Charles Borreomeo Church and School, please see Joan's sister Catherine. St. Charles has been torned down.

ST. CHARLES OF
BORROMEO.

On the corner of Twelfth
and Cypress Streets stands a
magnificent Gothic structure
known as the Church of St.
Charles of Borromeo, which
was founded in August, 1885,
by the Most Reverend Arch-
bishop Feehan, D.D. The
first resident pastor was the
Reverend P. D. Gill. He was
succeeded by the Reverend P.
J. Muldoon, who afterward be-
came Bishop of Chicago and
who is now Bishop of Rock-
ford, 111. The Right Reverend
P. J. Muldoon, D.D., was suc-
ceeded by the present pastor,
the Reverend E. J. Fox, who
has made many important im-
provements to the parish
buildings, which are today
among the finest church prop-
erty in the diocese. The fine
parochial school has 860 pu-
pils, while St. Mary's High
School has an attendance of
850 girls. Both schools are
taught by the Sisters of Char-
ity, B. V. M. Father Fox is
assisted by the Reverends J.
B. Scanlan and M. J. Xealis.

After their wedding Mass at St. Mel Catholic Church on the west side of Chicago, February 9, 1946, Joan and Lou's family and friends traveled to the western suburb of Oak Park, for their wedding reception at the Oak Park Arms Hotel.

Outside of St. Mel's Catholic Church, located on Washington Boulevard, Chicago, Joan and Lou's mothers pose for a sunny, Wedding Day photo on February 9th, 1946. On the left, is Lou's mother, Marie Hobbs, and on the right, is Joan's mother, Mary Kate Fitzgerad. Joan and Lou's fathers had passed away in 1925 and 1918, respectively.

St. Angela Catholic Church was completed and consecrated in 1952, located on the corner of Potomac and Massasoit Avenues, in Chicago's Austin neighborhood. Joan and Lou Hobbs lived at 1350 N. Massasoit, just several houses down the block from the school and church, raising their family of James Edward, John Walter, and Mary Lou.

St. Angela Parish was formed in 1916, celebrating Mass in a rented storefront at 5814 W. Division Street. Its first pastor was Rev. Joseph Fitzgerald. In 1949, construction was begun to build a new church, large enough, to accommodate the 7,000 parishioners who were attending Mass, each Sunday. Upon completion, its first Mass was celebrated on December 23, 1951. St. Angela Grammar School had an enrollment of 1,331 students in 1964. This French Gothic Church contained 36 stained glass windows, with the large side windows measuring 30 feet high by 14 feet wide. These windows were considered to be the second largest in the world, the first being, those of the medieval, Chartres Cathedral in France. Joan and Lou Hobbs son, Jim, was married to Patricia Ribar on June 16, 1978, at St. Angela.