Edith JoAnn Noel died Jan. 28, 2004, at an adult family home in Gig Harbor after a three-year battle with breast cancer. She was 71 years old.

She lived independently up until the last two weeks of her life.

Ms. Noel was a longtime resident of Vashon and the Puget Sound region.

She was born Sept. 16, 1932, in California, and moved to Vashon as a young girl. JoAnn was the daughter of Robert Underwood Bonnar and Virginia Beall Bonnar of the Beall Greenhouses family. She graduated from The Annie Wright School in Tacoma and attended the University of Washington.

She held positions as a bookkeeper, real estate agent and investment loan officer. She was an avid reader of mysteries, eater of candy and lover of cats. Ms. Noel enjoyed the ballet, repertory theater, musicals, and she was an intrepid world traveler.

She was also very involved with her four granddaughters, who will miss story time with Grandma.

Survivors include two daughters Carol Noel and Tricia Taylor; four granddaughters; four Bonnar half-siblings in California and Beall relations of Vashon and the Puget Sound region.

Ms. Noel was buried in the Vashon Cemetery on Jan. 31 after a brief memorial attended by immediate family.