JoAnn Hughes

JoAnn was born at home in Papillion, NE, on June 28th, 1937 to John and Martha “Dohse” Evers. She was the youngest of their nine children. She grew up in Papillion and graduated from Papillion High School.

She was baptized and confirmed in a Lutheran Church in Papillion. Over her lifetime she became a member of Our Redeemer Church in Springfield, Wellspring Church in Papillion, and lastly Redeemer Lutheran Church in Papillion.

She married Robert “Bob” Hughes on July 31, 1954 in Omaha, NE at the home of Reverend Bates with Samuel Marchese and Richard Jurgens serving as their witnesses.

She was preceded in death by her parents, five brothers, three sisters, mother-in-law, father-in-law, two brothers-in-law, and three sisters-in-law.

She is survived by her loving husband Bob, children Kenneth Hughes (Ricki), David Hughes (Kelly), Sheri Gruhn (Tim), Bob Hughes (Debbie), fourteen grandchildren, twenty-five great grandchildren, one brother-in-law, two sisters-in-law and numerous nieces and nephews.

There is so much to say about JoAnn. She truly was a wonderful woman. She loved Bob and her family more than anything else in this world. She had an unwavering faith in God.

If you were ever fortunate enough to be around JoAnn and Bob, you knew that’s what true love really was. They were married a month after she turned 17. She always said that when she laid eyes on Bob she knew he was the one for her. When Bob would give her a kiss, she would often tell him, “If I loved you anymore, my heart would break”. Whenever she was asked if she was all right, she would always say “As long as I have Bob, I’m just fine, he’s my everything.” Their devotion to each other was beautiful. Their love and marriage was one that only fairytales are made of. They were married for over 71 years and in all those years they only ever spent just a few days apart.

Not long after they were married their oldest son, Kenny was born followed shortly thereafter by son David, daughter Sheri, and their youngest son Bob.

They made their home in Springfield, NE, for all but the last few years of her life. They built their first home in Springfield starting out with building and living in the basement, after a while, they built the rest of the house over the basement where they live for several years. Later they purchased an acreage that was just outside of Springfield where they built a beautiful brick home. They lived there for many years and finished raising their children there. In 1989 they built a new home back in town where they lived until after Bob and JoAnn retired. In 2021 when they were both in their 80s, they sold their home in Springfield and downsized to a townhome off of Q St. in Omaha, where everything they need was within a couple miles.

In January 2025 as dementia was getting the better of JoAnn’s mind, and her body was fighting several other physical ailments, JoAnn was moved to Country House Residence, a memory care community, which conveniently was just one block from their townhome. This enabled Bob to be able to go to be with JoAnn every day. Never the one to complain, she took the move to Country House in stride. It was as if she knew it was the best thing for her and for Bob. Many of the staff at Country House commented how wonderful they were together and that they just loved Bob and JoAnn.

JoAnn was a stay at home mom for a quite a while when all of the kids were young. Eventually she started working in the evenings at the local Highway 50 Cafe in Springfield where she enjoyed visiting with all the customers. She worked there for many years.

Later on in life, she took a job through a temporary placement agency at MVP Laboratories in Ralston, where she worked testing hog vaccines. Within a couple of weeks, she was asked to become a permanent employee. JoAnn thrived at this job and was so proud of all the work she was doing and would happily tell anyone about what she did at work. She had a great bond with the owner, Mary Lou. She thoroughly enjoyed this job, so much so, that even when dementia had clouded her mind, one of the things she would talk about quite often was that she needed to get to work because she had tests that needed to be run.

JoAnn enjoyed having a large family and absolutely loved it when family was together. Every time it was announced that a new grandchild was on the way, her heart filled even more. She loved seeing all the pictures of family, friends, and days gone by, scroll by on her picture frame. These pictures sparked many conversations.

She loved pets of all kind, except the reptiles that granddaughter Angie had. They had many dogs over the years. But her very favorite was their last dog. They had a black-and-white Shih Tzu named Molly. Now most of the family wasn’t as much in love with Molly as JoAnn and Bob were, but to JoAnn, she was a huge comfort and a joy to have around.

JoAnn was a very loving and caring individual. She enjoyed visiting with people and loved learning all about their lives. She never met a stranger. She taught Sunday school at Our Redeemer for 25 years. What better person for a young mind to learn about Jesus than through JoAnn. Always a kind word to say and a warm hug when you left, she truly was someone very special.

The four of us lucky enough to call her mom, we are truly blessed. For those of us that had her as our mother-in-law, we couldn’t have asked for a better one, and for the kids who call her grandma or great grandma, well they hit the jackpot. We are sure she is watching over all of us. We have our own guardian angel in heaven. We know that one day, we will have a glorious reunion with her, just like she is having now with all her loved ones and friends that passed before her.

In Lieu of flowers please direct memorial donations to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or the Springfield Volunteer Fire Department (505 So. 1st St., Springfield, NE. 68059).