JoAnn Yvonne (Schaefer) Daugherty

JoAnn Yvonne (Schaefer) Daugherty left this world on Saturday morning, February 13th, 2021. She was 82 years old and 62 of those years she spent as the loving and devoted wife of her beloved husband, Richard Allen Daugherty - both of whom have resided in Wildwood, Missouri for thirty-three years.

Originally from the small town of Adeyville, Indiana, JoAnn was born on October 9th, 1938 and was the baby of eight brothers and sisters - Jeanette “Jenny”, Carl “Buddy”, Earl, Juliet, Irene, Maxine, Bernard Jr. “Chuck” and Ramona “Mona”. Parents Bernard John and Emma Anna (Jasper) Schaefer were married in 1921 in Perry County, Indiana and ultimately celebrated 61 years of marriage.

From an early age JoAnn was the little performer in the family. Pop Schaefer always said that her talent came from him but Mamaw Schaefer insisted it came from her. When she was only six years old, little JoAnn Schaefer was a featured performer with Smokey McCoy and his band on his radio show - a popular favorite in Southern Indiana. She sang and tap danced in her curls and Mary Janes. She would appear at local events and continued to do so when the family moved to Louisville, Kentucky during World War II. Busy in dramatics in high school and eventually going on to perform in nightclubs and entertaining with the USO, JoAnn was following her dream as a singer and had the full support of her adoring parents. Mamaw Schaefer made many of her gowns and costumes by hand and scrimped and saved to see that JoAnn got what she needed to succeed.

As Richard tells it, JoAnn was the guest at a party thrown by a fellow musician from Fort Knox where he was stationed and was a member of the Army Band. He was tending bar as a favor for his friend and saw Miss Schaefer across the room and knew she was the one he’d been waiting for. Somehow or another he worked up the nerve to kiss her and after a whirlwind courtship the two were married on December 27th, 1958.

According to JoAnn, several months into her pregnancy with her first child she received a phone call from The Ed Sullivan Show telling her that she was being slated for an upcoming broadcast. In tears she had to admit that she was “with child” and had to turn down the opportunity. Kathleen Ann was born on September 27th, 1959 - nine months to the day after Richard and JoAnn were married - and Mamaw Schaefer prayed the rosary all throughout the pregnancy hoping she’d make it to at least the 27th . And she did!

Two years later JoAnn gave birth to their second child, a son, William Allen Daugherty II (named after, and the story goes, by his paternal grandfather) in April of 1961 and not long after their third and final child, Patricia Lynn, timed her entrance to land on JoAnn’s birthday in October of 1963.

The Daugherty family lived in Overland and St. Ann, Missouri for the first few years and then moved to Bridgeton, Missouri in 1965 to the brand new Carrollton Oaks subdivision where they spent thirteen idyllic years on Tustin Court living the middle-class American dream.

In 1977 the family moved once more to Chesterfield, Missouri and then, when their nest was empty, JoAnn and Richard built a single story home in Wildwood, Missouri where they happily resided for the remainder of their years together.

JoAnn was not your typical housewife nor mother. She was the fun and bubbly aunt all the dozens of young nephews and nieces adored and lovingly called “Aunt JoJo”. She was the cool mom among her children’s friends - the one who liked to have séances and run through the sprinklers with them. Knowing she would live the life of a musician’s wife, JoAnn got used to New Year’s Eves spent with her kids, whom she always allowed to stay up late - even on a school night - when their dad had a late night gig, just so they could tell him goodnight. She was the kind of mom who might decide that it was time to play hooky from school for one of them and they’d head to the local bowling alley and have a “mom day” - just the two of them. She was the mother who was right in there helping out with the other stage moms for the local high school shows - bringing food for the late night rehearsals and attending every performance, seated in the first row. Or she would help her kids organize their yearly event with their group, “The Vaudeville Players”, who performed at the Payne-Gentry Fair in Bridgeton.

She poured her heart and her soul into her family and she breathed music into her three children, who would sing in part harmony for family and friends at the drop of a hat - and relentlessly from the back seat of the car on family vacations. On trips to the store in their 1963 Dodge Dart, JoAnn and her kids would sing loud and strong - “Let Me Call You Sweetheart”, “You Are My Sunshine” and “Sweet Adeline” - in full barbershop splendor, barely coming up for air between numbers.

When her kids were in college, JoAnn would hop a bus and spend the weekend with one of them making all the other students wish their mom was that kind of lady. The summer between her son Bill’s freshman and sophomore years he was doing summer stock and came down with mono and, upon hearing that, JoAnn was on the next bus to Springfield to be with him. One night, in a gathering at his apartment, she came up missing only to find that she had snuck downtown with some of the boys and was dancing at the local gay bar to Donna Summer with all “those nice theater fellas!” She was that mom.

She was an Avon Lady, sold Beeline Fashions, Stanley Home Products and Anything Grows plant systems just to make extra money. She was also the queen of garage sales and always made a handsome haul. And with that money she managed to pay for the luxury of flying her and her children down to Louisville to see the family when flying was something few could afford. She bowled on several teams in Bridgeton and coached the Senior Citizens League, even coaxing her father-in-law to join. An avid low-stakes gambler, JoAnn was a fixture at the local casinos and played Bingo at her parish in Wildwood for years.

At the age of 42, on a dare, JoAnn swung high above the sawdust floor of the Florida State Circus on the flying trapeze. She went on nearly thirty cruises with her daughters and grandchildren. After her son’s first appearance at Carnegie Hall, JoAnn wowed downtown audiences later that night at The Five Oaks with her rendition of “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”. But she had found hers. Richard doted on JoAnn and they never missed a birthday or an anniversary and nothing she wanted was too much for him to provide because she wanted so little beyond his love. And that she had.

She led a life that was joyous and full of affection. Everyone she met walked away a better person for having known her. She loved her family fiercely and beyond measure and woe to anyone who dare break the hearts of her offspring. JoAnn had a strong connection in her heart to her Catholic upbringing and raised her children at an early age in that tradition. Though she wasn’t a regular church goer in her later years, she loved her rosary and read her Daily Word faithfully. She believed in the idea that we would all be reunited with our loved ones in the end and she was visited by her mama and daddy in her last days which clearly brought her, and those who were with her, great comfort.

JoAnn is survived by her adoring husband, Richard Daugherty and their three children, Kathy Martin, Bill Daugherty and Patty Toben, sons-in-law Tony Martin and Terry Toben as well as her grandchildren: Jennifer (husband TJ) Hahn, Arthur Martin, Angie (husband Aaron) Saliger, Ellie Martin and Emma (husband Zach) King and three great-grandsons: Logan, Liam and Hudson Hahn. Her dear sister Ramona (“Manona Nanona”) Zoeller and brother Chuck Schaefer survive her as the last two siblings in the Schaefer clan.

Services: A memorial service will be held at a future date and her remains will be interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Ellisville, Missouri. In lieu of flowers, if you wish to make a donation these were some of JoAnn’s favorite charities: St. Louis Area Food Bank, MDA, or Project ALS. A service of the SCHRADER Funeral Home and Crematory. Friends may sign the family’s on-line guestbook at Schrader.com.

Please feel free to leave a remembrance of this beautiful woman on this site and if you care to post photos they would be most welcome.

In loving memory of JoAnn Yvonne Daugherty (1938-2021)

JoAnn's video tribute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClXf-8TJZE8