News Progress

Joan Dickens, 94, of Sullivan, passed away at 1:30 p.m. Saturday August 7, 2021.
Celebration of Life services will be 5 p.m. Tuesday in the Elim Springs Church of Jesus Christ with Vanessa Patient and Brigham Hagerman officiating. Visitation will be from 4 p.m. until service time. Burial will be in the Greenhill Cemetery, Sullivan. Memorials are suggested to the Elim Springs Church of Jesus Christ. Online condolences may be sent to the family at reedfuneralhome.net. Arrangements by the Reed Funeral Home, Sullivan.
Joan was born February 9, 1927, in Sullivan the daughter of Jesse W. and Blanche Hagerman Dickens. Joan attended Sullivan Schools. She was a lifetime member of the Elim Springs Church of Jesus Christ and sang in their choir. She had been a seamstress and supervisor for Felicity Fashions and then later retired from The Depot in Sullivan. Joan also made masks during the COVID pandemic to donate to local hospitals. She was an avid cat lover and had many as her pets. Joan was active in athletics with a special interest in tennis and she enjoyed promoting and teaching tennis to young people. She received the Volunteer of the Year Award on November 16, 2014, from Midsouth Illinois Tennis. She enjoyed traveling and went on many trips with family, friends and church groups. Her friends enjoyed receiving her homemade brittle and caramels at Christmas time, and her family will miss her apple and pumpkin pies.
Surviving are her brothers Evan (Dixie) Dickens and Mark (Ann) Dickens of Sullivan, several nieces and nephews, several great nieces and nephews and a great great niece and a great great nephew.
She was preceded in death by her parents and brothers Alan (Celia) Dickens, Steve (Mary Lou) Dickens, Norman Dickens and niece Jesse Dickens.