Joan W. Cole

Joan Walters Cole was called home to her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on January 28, 2026. She was born May 10, 1935, in Augusta, GA, to Harry Leonard Walters and Ethel Wilkerson Walters, and lived her early years in Macon, GA, residing on Ridge Ave. and Overlook Ave. with her two sisters.

As a student of Miller Senior High School in Macon, Joan was a colonel's sponsor for the ROTC, a ceremonial role of great significance in the social circles of the time. Attending Wesleyan College, she had the distinct honor to be presented at the Bons Hommes Annual Yule Ball in 1956. She eventually received a B.S. degree in Education from the University of Alabama. Joan would express, time and again, her gratitude to Dean John R. McLure of the School of Education for supporting her during those years. After graduating from Alabama, she became a third-grade teacher at Jessie Rice Elementary School in the Bibb County school system. Joan enjoyed the fine arts at this time and took an interest in sketching and painting.

At Alabama, Joan met her sweet husband, William Wesley Cole, Jr. (affectionately known as Bill or Billy) at the Tuscaloosa depot where he worked. Managing the ticket booth, he happened to notice one evening that Joan was late for the bus and did not have a ride back to the university, so he kindly volunteered to drive her to her dorm in Harris Hall. The rest is history, a true love story of a couple enamored with one another. They married on July 24, 1960, at Mulberry Street Methodist Church in Macon and were together in happy matrimony until Bill's passing on August 17, 2018.

Both Joan and Bill taught Sunday School for college students in Bessemer and Birmingham, Alabama, and were active at the Vestavia Hills Methodist Church. When they moved to the Atlanta suburbs in the early '70s into an unassuming ranch on Flemington Rd., they became devoted members of the Oak Grove Methodist Church. The year 1975 took both to Upper St. Clair, PA, where Joan was involved in The Southern Club of Pittsburgh, which regularly held charitable events. She loved living in the area for its rolling wooded hills. Joan and Bill then moved to Naperville, IL, in 1977, and-true to form-she became active at Grace United Methodist Church for many years teaching Sunday School to children, facilitating communion, and conducting Bible studies. She was also involved in the Welcome Wagon. And with Bill, she participated in Grace Home Visitors and tirelessly helped with Meals on Wheels. Joan called Naperville home until 2018, at which time-after Bill's passing-she secured an apartment right next door to her twin sister, Janet, at the King's Bridge Retirement Community in Atlanta, GA. The two had many admirers among the residents there, and Janet remains an adored presence to this day.

Joan considered herself fortunate to visit Europe three times, which included seeing the Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany. Most of all, she fondly recollected her time with Bill seeing the Holy Land in 2011. Both also loved the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, even catching performances on the big screen at the Naperville cinemas and enjoying some Szechwan cuisine or pie and ice cream afterwards.

Time spent with her family was especially meaningful to Joan, and she cherished the many wonderful memories they made together over the years. She often spoke of the importance of family and the need for the bonds between siblings to be maintained and strengthened when the

older generation passes on. As the best mother anyone could have, she devoted her life to the material and spiritual well-being of her children. Every waking hour, too, did she feel a great love for her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To all who knew Joan, she will be remembered as a sweet, charming, and deeply caring person, as well as a proper gracious lady with an unforgettable Macon accent that delighted everyone who met her.

Joan is survived by her older sister, Shirley Walters Waters, and her twin Janet Walters Beck; three devoted children, William Wesley Cole III and Joan Harriet Cole Scott and her husband, Bradley; and Andrew Walters Cole and his wife, Catherine Dailey. She dearly loved her four grandchildren by her daughter: Emily Mary Paxton and her husband Nathan; Anna Joan Schweikert and her husband Kyle; Andrew James Scott and his wife Alyssa; and Tyler William Scott and his wife Rachel-as well as her nine great-grandchildren, Calvin Bradley Paxton, Caroline Mary Paxton, Sophia Joan Schweikert, Lucy Marion Schweikert, Audrey Marilyn Schweikert, Ellie Rose Scott, Henry David Scott, Madeline Grace Scott, and Penelope Quinn Scott.

The family will receive friends at 11:00 a.m. with a service to follow at 12:00 p.m. Friday, February 6, 2026, at A. S. Turner & Sons Funeral Home, 2773 N. Decatur Road, Decatur, GA, 30033. Interment will be held at 2:45 p.m. Friday at Riverside Cemetery, 1301 Riverside Drive, Macon, Georgia, 31201.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Joan's beloved memory can kindly be made to Meals on Wheels-Chicago at https://www.mealsonwheelschicago.org/donate