JoAnn Sirockman Snider's Obituary
JoAnn Sirockman Snider, 94, died peacefully Nov. 25, 2023, in Gainesville, Fla., surrounded by family.
A devoted and loving wife, mother and grandmother, she was a junior high and high school English teacher for four decades before retiring in 1987 from the Mansfield (Ohio) City Schools and moving to Gainesville with her husband, Harold F. Snider.
The daughter and second child of John Sylvester Sirockman, Sr., and Lucille MacKay Sirockman, she was born April 8, 1929, in Pursglove, W. Va., a coal-mining town outside of Morgantown.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in education in 1950 from West Virginia University, where she was a member and vice president of the WVU chapter of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority, worked in the university library, and developed lifelong friends.
She loved teaching, spending hours preparing for classes and working to stay current on new teaching approaches, materials and textbooks—all with the goal of helping students learn and achieve. In the classroom, she stressed the importance of learning the rules of punctuation and grammar, of developing an extensive vocabulary, and of effective writing. In the 1970s, she developed an instructional unit on Black literature, introducing students to prominent Black authors of the time.
Because of her commitment to students, she was named to a nationwide list of more than 5,000 outstanding teachers in the 1976 edition of Outstanding Leaders in Elementary and Secondary Education.
In retirement, she loved entertaining family and friends at her home, traveling, spending summers at Lake Junaluska, N.C., collecting antiques, attending concerts, relaxing with a good book or magazine, and writing entries into a set of journals she kept recalling her childhood in West Virginia as well as daily activities in Gainesville.
Friends remember her outgoing, effervescent personality that made for easy conversations, a ready smile and laugh, her love affair with the mountains, her pride in being a West Virginia native, and always being well-dressed.
Listening to songs by country singer and guitarist Glenn Campbell brought much joy, and comedian Carol Burnett’s 1970s television skits always produced hearty laughs.
The Sniders were active members of the Trinity United Methodist Church. They participated in Bible study groups, and she belonged to the Trinity United Methodist Women organization and ALERT, which stood for Adults Leisurely Enjoying Retirement Together, a group that met for luncheons, community-service projects, and travel.
She was preceded in death byher parents; her husband of 45 years, Harold, who died in 2020; by brothers John, Jerry and James Sirockman; and by her first husband, Robert L. Winkler, a World War II U.S. Army Air Corps veteran who earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from WVU and who died in 1973.
She is survived by daughter Nancy Winkler Talaba, of Clearwater, Fla., and her husband John, and their children, Mark and Karen; son James R. Winkler, of Gainesville, and sister-in-law Ruby Sirockman of Missoula, Mont.
She is also survived two stepdaughters and their husbands—Jan Snider Samet O’ Leary and Mick O’Leary of Frederick, Md., and Betsy Snider Clement, and Larry (Laurence) Clement of Dunedin, Fla. She is also survived by stepgrandson Aaron Phillip Samet.
Her ashes will be spread in two of her favorite spots in Ohio and West Virginia. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial donations be directed to a favorite charity.
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