Joan T. Kmetz December 17, 1939 – December 7, 2025
Joan T. Kmetz (née Joan Elizabeth Teichmann) passed away on December 7, 2025, in Norman, Oklahoma, just ten days shy of her 86th birthday. Born in New York City to Charles and Anne Teichmann, Joan was a woman defined by her warmth, her adventurous spirit, and her unshakeable loyalty to those she loved.
Joan grew up in Crestwood, New York, where she developed an early love for nature and active play, often found jumping the brook in her backyard with neighbor friends to collect insects. As a young girl, she took the train to Texas and spent summers with beloved cousins on their family farm; they teased her as a “Yankee” but she didn’t mind. She was a 1957 graduate of Roosevelt High School and went on to earn a degree in physiology from Mount Holyoke College in 1961.
In 1962, Joan married Allan Kmetz, a fellow classmate from Roosevelt High. They hadn’t dated in high school—instead, they shared many classes, competed for the top grade, and even went on double dates together with other partners. Their marriage began with a honeymoon in Bermuda, followed the next year by a cross-country camping trip in a red VW Beetle.
The couple initially settled in Connecticut while Allan earned his PhD in electrical engineering from Yale University. During these years, Joan worked as a phlebotomist until she became a mother, welcoming first a daughter, Lisa, and then a son, John. As a family, they lived in Richardson, Texas; Nussbaumen, Switzerland; and Chatham, New Jersey. In later years, Joan and Allan lived in Oklahoma and California before Joan returned to Norman just a month prior to her passing.
In addition to working as a phlebotomist, Joan volunteered with hospice, worked for Ciba-Geigy, and spent years volunteering with the Chatham Emergency Squad. She loved helping people and applying her interest in science. After treating so many injuries from people falling off their roofs, she never would allow her husband to get up on a ladder. She also got a thrill out of driving the ambulance with the lights and sirens on.
She was a true "people person" who took the time to talk to everyone she met. She had a knack for listening and getting to know people deeply—sometimes to the annoyance of her teenage children, who often had to wait while she caught up on the lives of the local butcher or her emergency squad friends.
Joan was fun and had a bawdy sense of humor. She used to do headstands at parties and lift people into the air with her feet while lying on her back. She laughed easily and made friends who lasted a lifetime. But above all, Joan was a doting daughter, sister, wife, mother, and grandmother. She created a home filled with love and laughter, remembered fondly for making French toast for dinner and serving it slice-by-slice as her children yelled out, "I'm ready!" She was also fiercely protective; on one occasion, she jumped into a pool on top of some boys who were bullying her children.
Joan was a deeply spiritual person, which coexisted effortlessly with her scientific disposition and broad education. She loved to travel and read the New York Times and the Star Ledger every day, in addition to a daily devotional. She and Allan were members of various churches over the years, including the Unitarian church in Richardson, Texas, the United Methodist and Presbyterian churches in Chatham, New Jersey, and St. Stephens United Methodist Church in Norman, Oklahoma.
Joan leaves behind a legacy of joy, resilience, and deep connection, in addition to a closet filled with twinsets from Talbots. She was predeceased by her parents and her husband Allan. She is survived by her children, Lisa Partida (Saul Partida) and John Kmetz (Loretta Bass), her sister Suzy Markowitt Mock, grandsons Gus and Elliott Kmetz, Aunt Ruth Kmetz of the Lutheran Haven in Florida, and cousins in Texas and elsewhere.
Joan T. Kmetz (née Joan Elizabeth Teichmann) passed away on December 7, 2025, in Norman, Oklahoma, just ten days shy of her 86th birthday. Born in New York City to Charles and Anne Teichmann, Joan was a woman defined by her warmth, her adventurous spirit, and her unshakeable loyalty to those she loved.
Joan grew up in Crestwood, New York, where she developed an early love for nature and active play, often found jumping the brook in her backyard with neighbor friends to collect insects. As a young girl, she took the train to Texas and spent summers with beloved cousins on their family farm; they teased her as a “Yankee” but she didn’t mind. She was a 1957 graduate of Roosevelt High School and went on to earn a degree in physiology from Mount Holyoke College in 1961.
In 1962, Joan married Allan Kmetz, a fellow classmate from Roosevelt High. They hadn’t dated in high school—instead, they shared many classes, competed for the top grade, and even went on double dates together with other partners. Their marriage began with a honeymoon in Bermuda, followed the next year by a cross-country camping trip in a red VW Beetle.
The couple initially settled in Connecticut while Allan earned his PhD in electrical engineering from Yale University. During these years, Joan worked as a phlebotomist until she became a mother, welcoming first a daughter, Lisa, and then a son, John. As a family, they lived in Richardson, Texas; Nussbaumen, Switzerland; and Chatham, New Jersey. In later years, Joan and Allan lived in Oklahoma and California before Joan returned to Norman just a month prior to her passing.
In addition to working as a phlebotomist, Joan volunteered with hospice, worked for Ciba-Geigy, and spent years volunteering with the Chatham Emergency Squad. She loved helping people and applying her interest in science. After treating so many injuries from people falling off their roofs, she never would allow her husband to get up on a ladder. She also got a thrill out of driving the ambulance with the lights and sirens on.
She was a true "people person" who took the time to talk to everyone she met. She had a knack for listening and getting to know people deeply—sometimes to the annoyance of her teenage children, who often had to wait while she caught up on the lives of the local butcher or her emergency squad friends.
Joan was fun and had a bawdy sense of humor. She used to do headstands at parties and lift people into the air with her feet while lying on her back. She laughed easily and made friends who lasted a lifetime. But above all, Joan was a doting daughter, sister, wife, mother, and grandmother. She created a home filled with love and laughter, remembered fondly for making French toast for dinner and serving it slice-by-slice as her children yelled out, "I'm ready!" She was also fiercely protective; on one occasion, she jumped into a pool on top of some boys who were bullying her children.
Joan was a deeply spiritual person, which coexisted effortlessly with her scientific disposition and broad education. She loved to travel and read the New York Times and the Star Ledger every day, in addition to a daily devotional. She and Allan were members of various churches over the years, including the Unitarian church in Richardson, Texas, the United Methodist and Presbyterian churches in Chatham, New Jersey, and St. Stephens United Methodist Church in Norman, Oklahoma.
Joan leaves behind a legacy of joy, resilience, and deep connection, in addition to a closet filled with twinsets from Talbots. She was predeceased by her parents and her husband Allan. She is survived by her children, Lisa Partida (Saul Partida) and John Kmetz (Loretta Bass), her sister Suzy Markowitt Mock, grandsons Gus and Elliott Kmetz, Aunt Ruth Kmetz of the Lutheran Haven in Florida, and cousins in Texas and elsewhere.
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