A Celebration of Life for Mrs. Joanna Ruth Lewis will be conducted at 6:00 PM on Saturday, March 10, 2018, at Coffee County Funeral Chapel. Visitation with the family will be from 4:00 PM until 6:00 PM at the funeral home. Mrs. Lewis passed away on Monday, March 5, 2018, at St. Thomas Rutherford Hospital, surrounded by her loving family.
Joanna was born in Beechgrove, TN, the daughter of the late James Ewell and Louise Shaw Ewell. She attended college at Austin Peay State University and then served her country in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. Later, Joanna worked as a journalist for the Fayetteville Observer in Fayetteville, North Carolina, moved back to Tennessee and worked as a seamstress, managed the PCA factory store, worked on the US Census multiple times, and most importantly raised six children. She was the Coffee County Historian, served as President of the Coffee County Historical Society, and was a member of the Middle Tennessee Amateur Radio Society. A passionate historian and genealogist; she also co-published Tombstone Records of Cannon County, Tennessee.
Joanna is preceded in death by her late husband, Jesse Wesley Lewis, Jr. She is survived by her six children, James (Mary Lou) Harvill, Michael (Shawna) Lewis, Nicholas (Vicki) Lewis, Tracey (Tony) Suzzi, Stephanie (Jeff) Hayes, and Stephen Lewis; one sister, Paula (Randall) Carr; and seven grandchildren.
