Joan Anne Feller

Joan Anne (Scannell) Feller

Native San Franciscan born of Irish parents, Thomas Scannell and Dolores (Taylor) Scannell on July 13, 1950 and passed from this life on December 14, 2018 in Tracy California.

Beloved wife of 43 years to Bruce David Feller; Loving mother to Denise Byrd (Eric), Gabriel (Marissa) and Joel Feller; Grandmother to Kylie, Haley, and Kennedy Byrd, Sloane and Bodie Feller; Sister to John Scannell and his wife Nancy, and to brothers who preceded her in death, Mike, Tommy, and Denis; Niece to many aunts, uncles, and many more cousins.

She was given the gift of humor from her father, and loved to play jokes on people. She received the gift of tenacity from her mother, which helped her persevere in almost any difficult situation; in fact, her favorite saint was St. Tenacious. She was a skilled seamstress and loved many crafts such as Tole folk painting and scrapbooking. She had a deep faith in God and loved Bible Study.

Above all, Joan loved her family. She felt very fortunate to be able to stay home and raise her children as her mother had. Having grown up with two disabled brothers, she was prepared for the challenges she would face in obtaining proper medical care and education for her son with Cerebral Palsy. He required many operations, and she spent many nights and days in clinics and hospitals with him,

While there were many state and federal educational programs, she found the school system was woefully unprepared, underfunded, and understaffed to meet mandated requirements. Being a stickler for details, she thoroughly researched her rights and the schools responsibilities. She met with school officials and came to an agreement. When they asked her to sign an agreement document, she found much of what they agreed to was missing, and they were unwilling to change it. Subsequently she asked her congressman to meet with her and the school officials; after which the school relented.

When other people found out about her success, she stared getting requests to help them advocate for their own children, and she did. Eventually some of these parents started a “grass roots effort” by putting campaign like signs on her lawn, encouraging her to run for school board. While she was somewhat reluctant, she successfully went on to win four terms as member of the Board Trustees for the Tracy Unified School District. She was, as usual, thorough in her research and balanced her decisions with fairness toward her constituents and the school district. She was a Trustee for 15 years until she retired for health reasons.

She is greatly missed by her family and friends.


PLEASE JOIN A CELEBRATION OF JOAN FELLER’S LIFE
Friday, December 28th at 11:00 a.m. at

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Joan Anne Feller, please visit our floral store.