Joan Agnes Howard

Joan was brought up in a very happy home with one older sister namedNatalie. She attended Westridge Private School for Girls from secondgrade through high school. She was an excellent tennis player and herfamily had many tennis parties at their house on California Street inPasadena. She won the Ojai Tennis Tournament in the 18 and underdoubles division and several other titles for her age group. She wasconsidered an excellent young girl and held offices in school, beingpresident of her elementary class and also of her high school class.She was also editor of her school's yearbook annual. Her happiestmemories of childhood are at San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara and theOliver's house at Lake Tahoe. During World War II, she remembersvolunteering at the AWVS assembling bandages and care packages for thesoldiers. She was a candystriper at the local hospital, as well. Heraspirations as a child were to be a singer or private investigator.She also always wanted to be able to speak another language and canmanage French when necessary. Her house on California Street inPasadena was haven for local activity, with lots of kids congregatingthere because of their tennis court and pool. Dorothy HughesMatthiessen and Cece Halsted Brown were her best friends growing up.

She went to the University of California at Berkeley and majored inInternational Relations. She was a Kappa Kappa Gamma and co-rushchairman her sophomore year. She was very active socially and met LeeSammis as a freshman, although she remembered him from Pasadena as afreind of her sister Natalie's. She married him after two years ofcollege and moved immediately to Ford Ord where he was stationed inthe United States Army. She was pregnant with her first child, Diana,three months after her wedding and then about a year and a half laterwith second child, Gina. They moved back to Southern California afterthe Army and settled in Chapman Woods in Pasadena on Yorkshire Road.Coldwell Banker brought them down to Newport Beach in 1962 where theyhave lived since.

She joined the Junior League at its inception in the Orange Countyarea in the early 1960's and was Vice President one year. She gaineda large circle of friends from her association with the Junior Leagueas well as from her tennis playing at the Balboa Bay Club. She hasheld many other positions among various organizations, being a chartermember of Planned Parenthood, Adoption Guild, Corresponding Secretaryof Angelitos de Oro, Vice President of American Field Service, VicePresident of the PTA, an active member of the Children's Home Societyand a board member of New Directions. She was brought up to believethat you always give something back to the community when you areprivileged enough to live well, a motto brought down through thegenerations from Nana (Annie McLean Buckingham) to Granny B and hermother, Elizabeth Buckingham Howard.

She worked as an interior decorator for a while, but it is now anavocation. She has a real knack for interiors and has furnishedseveral beautiful homes and their boat Shazam. She loved the boat - a63 foot Hatteras long range cruiser - and some of her best memoriesare on that boat, cruising the East Coast of the United States, theBahamas and Florida Keys during the 1980's. They regretfully sold theShazam in 1990.

She travels with husband Lee often and always accompanies him to ULIconventions all over the country. They have traveled to Europeseveral times, but hope to be able to spend more time traveling in thefuture. She took daughter Annie on a safari in Africa in 2000,fulfilling a lifelong dream. She and daughter Diana met Annie on theS.S. Universe in Hong Kong in 1985. She and daughter, Gina, took abirthday trip to Hawaii in 2002, reliving her days in Waikiki as ateenager and seeing all the Hawaiian historical sites as an amateurHawaiiana connoisseur. She has been a constant source of support inher husband's business and life, devoting most of her life to herfamily. They are avid antiquers and have filled their home sincetheir first year of marriage with their finds. She is probably one ofthe favorite people of most of her friends because she is so givingand selfless and is always there when one of them call. Her childrenhave given her the moniker St. Joan as a result. She is the greatestmom around and is very close to all her children and grandchildren.She is the engine that runs the family machine.