Joanne "Joanie"Aveline Lawrence was born in her parent's home in Los Angeles, California in 1923. She graduated in 1940 from Mark Keppel High School, which she sued for forcing her to shower in the girls' locker room, stating gang showers violated her right to privacy. The case was mentioned in Life magazine and newspapers across the country; she received sacks of fan mail which included marriage proposals. She went on to marry four times, but never to anyone who wrote regarding the case.
She worked for a munitions factory during the war, bred show-winning boxers, and took tailoring classes from an assistant to Dior. As a child, she loved visiting her aunts Elizabeth and Kate in LA and on Balboa Island. She loved travel and road trips and always had a suitcase ready to go. When her uncle died, the only thing of his she wanted was his hat that said "On the road again."
Her first husband was a member of a circus high-flier wire-walking family act. She traveled with the troupe cross-crossing the U.S. When asked what act she performed as a member of the circus she always replied, “I washed tights.”
She and her husband of 54 years, Joseph Bernardin, moved from Huntington Beach to Paradise in 1973. They ran Ponderosa Pines, truly a mom and pop gas station and grocery store. Later they operated an accounting business. When Joe was 80 years old they retired and announced they would no longer be doing taxes, one client said, "But you'll still do MINE, right?"--they made all their clients feel special.
She claimed her spaghetti ("you have to use Italian sausage") cranberry jello salad ("mine doesn't have mayonaise"), and her fruitcake ("good dried fruit and no citron!") were the best.
She loved to play cards and usually won.
She outlived three husbands, and her oldest daughter, Valerie Jean Penrod. She was the eldest of four and was heartbroken with the loss of each of them: Edie, Sonny, and Gale. Also greeting her on the other side were her parents, Paul Aveline Lawrence and Lola Belle Haight Lawrence, and her grandparents, Marie Amelia and Gladding W Haight, whom she kept alive with stories of life on a farm in Michigan and later Los Angeles. She credited them with taking care of her family during the depression, and because of them she could identify almost any kind of tree and flower.
She leaves behind her beloved grandchildren and great-grandchildren, some by blood and some by marriage: Keith and his children Kyli and Kody; Crystal; Casey and his daughter Camber; Tiffany and her daughter Ashley; Natalie Aveline and her children Tyler, Jayne Aveline, Kate, Annie, and Grace; and Alison and her children: Noelle, Elias, Tatum and Finley. Grandchildren Stefan and Camille Aveline will also forever remember their Grammie. She is survived by her sister-in-law of 70 years, Barbara, and enjoyed her visits to the very end.
She took her first trip to Europe at age 89, enjoying the castles of Romania, the beaches of the Black Sea, and baguettes in Paris.
She drove through flames-- and recorded video--as she fled the Paradise fire in 2018, she moved to two different states and back to California, married and divorced, and bought her grandson an airplane--all in her 90's. "Don't let age define you," she said.
Next time you can, have a piece of cake and a cup of coffee in her honor. Joanne died in Citrus Heights, in her 100th year of living.
"See ya in the funny papers."
Road trip from Paradise, CA to Whidbey Island, WA 2018.