Joan Barbara (Mackey)  Watkins, 80, of Fayetteville, PA, passed away July 7, 2026. She was born March 5, 1946, in Weehawken, NJ, the daughter of Frederick and Wanda (Campman) Mackey. 

 

Joan was a teacher by training and in her heart, spending two decades teaching fifth and sixth grades in New Jersey. She loved her students and touched many lives over the years. When she retired to Pennsylvania, she enjoyed substitute teaching and volunteering with Bible Release in the local schools. She lived in a variety of countries over the years, including France, Burkina Faso, Israel and South Africa. She often commented that she thought the Pennsylvania countryside was some of the most beautiful she’d even seen. She also taught English to Engineering students in China with her husband David for a summer, and ran a 74-room guest house and restaurant for Wycliffe Bible Translators in the Sahara for six months. She traveled to over 60 countries and 49 states. Joan loved the warmth of Vietnam and Cambodia, the adventure of traveling through the Panama Canal on a container ship from China, and summer vacations at a family camp on Lake Champlain in Vermont. 

 

Everyone who met Joan knew that she was one of the sweetest people they ever knew. She never met a stranger and waved to every child she saw wherever she was. She loved everyone she met, and dearly loved her family. Joan practiced hospitality graciously, often hosting guests weekly, filling multiple guest books over the years. She taught her daughters how to cook, clean, and sew, and most importantly, how to make pie crusts. Then she promptly stopped making them herself since we could do it for her. She loved music, especially singing alto to the old hymns and playing the piano. Holiday traditions like “Family Baking Day” were favorites, and she loved reading, puzzles, sudoku, word finds, and traveling. She found joy in so many things, from reading all the road signs to eating every SWEET thing she could find. Earlier in her life, she loved black licorice, but her more recent favorite treats were marshmallow peeps and anything chocolate.

 

Joan has loved her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ since childhood. She often organized and led home Bible Studies while living in many states and foreign countries. She loved journaling and often wrote in her Bible margins. The following note was recently found in one of her many Bible translations next to Psalm 102.28: “Lord, help me model behavior that will lead my children & grandchildren to serve you and love you.” 

 

She was incredibly patient and kind, took joy in the little things in life, like every flower or butterfly she saw, and every puffy cloud in a clear blue sky. She spent the last 22 months of her life in Magnolia’s Memory Care in Chambersburg.  She loved both staff and residents like family and thought of it as her home. She was married to her husband David for 58 years on July 6. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her. 

 

Joan is survived by her husband, David J. Watkins of Fayetteville, PA, daughter Rachel Bradley of Succusunna, NJ, daughter Rebecca (Edward) Schuurman of Waynesboro, PA, daughter Rissah Watkins of Frederick, MD, and six grandchildren: Elizabeth (Ethan Amburgey) Schuurman, Nathan Bradley, Hannah Schuurman, Jacob Bradley, Grace Schuurman, and Joshua Schuurman. She is also survived by her brother, Reverand Frederick Mackey of Lititz, PA and sister Edna (Albert) White of Ambler, PA. 

 

Joan is preceded in death by her parents and her sister-in-law, Carolyn Mackey. 

 

A viewing will be held for friends and family on Friday, July 10, 2026, at 4:00 PM, at Kelso-Cornelius Funeral Home, Ltd., 725 Norland Ave Chambersburg, PA 17201, followed by a brief service at 5:00 PM. Burial will be held on Saturday, July 11, 2026, at 1:00 PM, at Pine Grove Cemetery, 374 Pine Grove Road South Sterling, PA 18460. 

 

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in Joan’s name may be made to Julie’s Heart Cry, https://juliesheartcry.org/.