Joan Elaine (Custance) Freehan's Obituary
Joan Elaine (Custance) Freehan was born in Detroit, Michigan July 18, 1943 to Hilda (Lambert) and Donald Custance. She spent her early years growing up in Detroit’s VanDyke/Outer Drive neighborhood area until the family moved to the northwest suburb of Beverly Hills, Michigan in 1951. After attending Holy Name Elementary School in Birmingham, she graduated high school in 1961 at Royal Oak’s Shrine of the Little Flower High School on 13 Mile. Her four years of college life included commuting to or living in the dorm at Marygrove College in Detroit where she was also a proud member of the Registrar’s Office staff. She graduated with a degree in elementary education in 1965 beginning her teaching career that same year at Birmingham’s St. Regis Elementary School teaching 48 fourth graders.
On June 10, 1967 she married Robert Freehan whom she first met seven years earlier at a church youth club meeting. After marrying, the couple moved to the St. Petersburg, Florida area where he was stationed on active duty with the U.S. Air Force. During the next 9 years, the Air Force moved them to South Carolina, upstate New York and the Lansing, Michigan area where she taught two years at a Catholic School near St. Johns. Those years blessed them with two children: Christoper (Susan Flora-Freehan) and Timothy Freehan followed in later years by two grandchildren: Natalie Marie (Camden) Oslund and Andrew Freehan.
Leaving Air Force active duty, the family moved to Warren, then Sterling Heights, Michigan in 1975 where Joan coupled her love of books and reading with volunteer work with the Friends of the Sterling Heights Public Library where she served in various leadership positions. She was also the unofficial swimming teacher for neighborhood children in the Freehan family pool. Once the boys were grown and gone, Joan returned to the teaching profession as a full-time substitute teacher with Warren Consolidated Schools often filling requests as a media specialist in the school library.
In 2002, with both she and Bob close to retirement, Joan moved to a home the couple had renovated on the St. Clair River in East China, Michigan which their family members enjoyed visiting. There she spent many hours as a volunteer with the Friends of the St. Clair Public Library coordinating the on-going used book sale. Although not an artist, Joan nevertheless donated many hours with the St. Clair Art Association, often helping with the sign-in and registration portion of the annual St. Clair Art Fair. When not volunteering, she and Bob enjoyed educational and shore excursions aboard ten European and Alaskan Ocean and River cruises where they met and made several new friends. With great excitement, she and Bob moved into their first-ever completely new-built home in October 2024 located less than a mile from the River House.
Joan passed away on April 30, 2026 at home in East China, Michigan. In addition to her husband of nearly 59 years, two sons, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, Joan is survived by her sister Janet (David) Lawson, step sisters Barbara Pickard, Ellen Burns, step brother Phillip Burns and many nieces and nephews.
Visitation is scheduled on Friday, May 8 from 4 to 8 PM at Young Colonial Chapel Funeral Home, 4061 St. Clair Hwy., East China, Michigan. A visitation followed by a funeral Mass Celebration of Life will also be held at 12:00 PM on Saturday, May 9 at St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church, 21201 E 13 Mile Rd. St. Clair Shores, Michigan. A private Inurnment will be held at Hillside Cemetery, St. Clair, Michigan at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Friends of the St. Clair Public Library or St. Clair Historical Museum.
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