Joan Marie (nee Bedel) Nobbe, 82, entered into Eternal Rest on January 1, 2025. A wonderful artist, she lived a beautiful life that was itself a work of art through faith, family, and steadfast spirit. She was born as the first child of Kenneth and Clara (nee Fischer) Bedel on April 15, 1942. Joan married Harold C. Nobbe on May 26, 1962, at Holy Family Parish in Oldenburg. He preceded her in death on February 16, 1996.
Joan grew up in Oldenburg and enjoyed the wonder of growing up in the religious setting of the town. She attended and graduated from Immaculate Conception Academy in 1960 and remained active in the ICA Immaculata Club for many years. Joan was a talented artist in many facets and has several children and grandchildren who have been blessed with her artistic flair. She was a devoted wife and mother in raising eight children with her husband on their dairy farm. As her children grew older, she enjoyed the relationships built working for North Branch Golf Course from its opening for many years as well as the many families she worked for cleaning homes in the Batesville community.
A woman of strong faith instilled by her parents and family, she shared that with many through her life and loved her Catholic faith. She continued attending and enjoying Bible studies and religious talks right up to her time of passing. She was an active member of St. Anne in Hamburg while raising a family. She was part of the Ladies’ Society and her husband loved that she shared her beautiful voice next to him and in the choir. She would move to St. Peter’s a few years after his death and created many new friends as well as being a parishioner with two of her sisters and their families. She would serve as part of the festival committee and ran the cake room for many years in the dining hall at the Labor Day Picnic. She enjoyed genealogy and was always working to learn more about her and Harold’s families going forward and back.
She and Harold relished the joys in raising a large family and the gatherings and activities of that and of a large extended family as well. They grew together in faith through Marriage Encounters and square danced many a Saturday night with the Tree City Squares. They developed many friendships through faith, family, and farming that rooted their children for a continuation of these close bonds and for everyone in the family.
From her first visit to the beach in Fort Lauderdale on their honeymoon, Joan loved the sands and especially the shells. She would walk hours on the beaches of any vacation to the shore to pick up countless shells. During her long bout of cancer, many trips were taken with family to get her to the beach. After this long past year, she craved one more visit, which was gifted to her by her children and enjoyed with her three daughters at the home of one of her godchildren in the same area of Florida where she initially encountered that beauty as a newlywed. Her Christmas gift to every family member this Christmas was a shell ornament crafted from one of those shells of her final trip with a special inscription of love and blessings meticulously written inside each shell.
Her grandchildren will fondly remember years of attending Grandma Camp with her and aunts and uncles through many years. Play, food, and fun were always a part of it, but every day was also centered around prayer and family. She continued to share these experiences even through more than ten years of battling mainly breast cancer. Throughout her illness, she was determined to fight and kept a positive attitude with many remarks through the years of hospital staff of how upbeat she always seemed even when given another bleak outlook. She would take a day and then be determined yet again to continue down that path. She remained living on her own up to her time of death despite these many struggles.
Joan is survived by children Cathy (Steve Hetrick) Nobbe of Plainfield, IN; Jeff (Connie) Nobbe of Brownsburg, IN; Dan (Mary) Nobbe of Greensburg, IN; Greg Nobbe of Greensburg, IN; Laura (Jeff) Newman of Lebanon, IN; Mitch (Lori) Nobbe of Westport, IN; Christopher (Susan Kreusch) Nobbe of Sunman, IN; Susie (Michael) Bihl of Lebanon, IN; sister Lois (Carl) Bohman of St. Peter’s, IN; brother Lawrence (Theresa) Bedel of Oldenburg, IN; brother-in-law Robert Fussner of St. Peter’s; sisters-in-law Millie Bedel of Peppertown; Eileen (Carl) Moorman of Millhousen; Lucille (Fran) Effinger of Batesville; Theresa Nobbe of Enochsburg; Mary Nobbe of Greensburg. Eighteen grandchildren, Jake (Carolyn), Alyssa, Neal (Andrea), Noah (Kyra), Nathan (Liz), Joshua (Abby), Trent, Stephanie, Keaton (Elly), Nick (Hannah), Jenna, Riley, Alli, Elizabeth, GraceAnne, Emma, Samuel, and Emily. Two great-grandchildren, Grace and Matthew with two more expected in 2025. She also greatly loved and stayed close to her godchildren Carol Koester, Kay Schwering, and Tim Bohman.
Joan is preceded in death by her husband, her parents, brother Raymond Bedel, sisters Jane Fussner and Diane Bedel, in-laws John/Alice Nobbe, Richard/Mildred Nobbe, Dale/Rosemary Koors, Ambrose/Anna Mae Nobbe, James Nobbe, Raymond Nobbe, and one fetal child given a private burial.
Visitation for Joan will be at Weigel Funeral Home, Batesville, Indiana, on Tuesday, January 7 from 4:00-7:00 P.M. with a public Rosary to be prayed at 3:30. You may also call on Wednesday morning from 9:00-9:40 A.M. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at Holy Family Parish at 10:00 A.M. with Fr. John Barker, O.F.M. Gravesite rites will take place immediately following at St. Anne Cemetery in Hamburg.
Memorials may be made to St. Anne Cemetery Fund or for Mass intentions in her name. For online condolences go to www.weigelfh.com.