Joanne Katherine Forsberg

Joanne Katherine Slaboda grew up in Trenton, New Jersey. She loved to dance on her tip-toes like a ballerina and to sing in a beautiful soprano voice in the choir and congregation of Beth El Lutheran Church. When in her later teen years her father got sick and could not fully support the family, Joanne took part time jobs when the high school day was done to supplement the family income. She was a good kid that way.

When Bill Ferrell returned from fighting the North Koreans in 1953, there was a very pretty girl working in the box office of the Greenwood Theatre in Trenton. He took a shine to her, and she to him, and, despite Bill’s Catholicism, they managed a barely tolerated and even less acknowledged courtship before eloping, of necessity. Before the kids started to come, they had fun going to New York City to see acts like Louis Prima in Manhattan nightclubs. It’s ok to be jealous.

And kids they came, although in no particular pattern. Two by Year Two, another seven years later, and then twins six years after that. Joanne’s gift as a mother was to treat five very different kids – differently. Fiercely protective of Jack in the middle, obligingly laissez-faire with the older Bill and Rick, and then some combination of those attitudes with the late-delivered Sharon and Shawn.

Then a break of sorts from all that. When Joanne and Bill’s marriage reached a logical, amicable conclusion, Jo was free to put that same desirability Bill had encountered in 1953 to use in the Wilmington social scene of the Eighties where she was much pursued by its divorced, middle-aged men. Bud Forsberg eventually won the lottery, and the two were happily married for more than two decades. Joanne inherited a second set of kids to whom she was as generous and thoughtful as she was to the first. Bud’s brother Jim still sends her flowers each year on her birthday. With great sadness, we will have to tell him that is no longer necessary.

Jo, your kids are so thankful that you brought them into this interesting, mostly happy life. We’re thankful, too, that until these last few years, you had the good, long ride you deserved. We pray for your soul and keep the memory of you.