JoAnn Smith Peterson Mote

JoAnn Smith Peterson Mote, 78, of Elizabethtown heard the call to go home by her Lord and Savior on Thursday morning of January 25, 2024. She joined the ones gone before her, parents Adell F. Smith, Janie Bell Smith, brothers Charles Smith, Kenneth Smith, and Anthony Smith, sisters Hilda Smith and Janice Smith, daughter Margaret Platt, and grandson Mark Anthony Peterson.

JoAnn was the anchor of her family.  A proud Mama and Grandma that loved unconditionally. She always put her family’s needs and the needs of others before her own. She was a high-spirited conversationalist that never met a stranger and made new friends everywhere she went. JoAnn was a long-time seamstress in the Town of Garland and Elizabethtown. She also worked as an In-home caregiver for her grandson Mark all while successfully owning and managing a blueberry farm.

After her retirement, JoAnn was always found in her beautiful flower gardens that were admired by many, reading a book, visiting with friends or cooking. She knew her way around the kitchen and if you left her house hungry it was your own fault. She was a lifelong member of the Beard’s Chapel Baptist Church in Garland where, at times, she served as a Sunday School Teacher, sang in the choir and served on different committees.

A woman of many talents with a heart of gold that brought much love, joy, and goodness to this world and is surely sharing the love in that home above.

Left to cherish her memory are her three children, James V. Peterson (Janice), Patrica P. Johnson (Alton), and Paul N. Peterson (Angela), all of Elizabethtown, one sister Barbara Autry of Clarkton, two grandchildren, Ross Johnson (girlfriend Katie) and Savanna Hodge (Chris), three great grandsons, James Hand, Jordan Williams and Mason Williams, special friends, Lucille Wilkins and Sylvia Tatum, her fur baby, Bubba, and a host of other family members and friends.

A graveside service will be held on Monday, January 29, 2024, at 2 pm in the Bladen Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Elizabethtown with the Reverend Ralph Carter Jr. officiating. The family will receive friends immediately following the service.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Make a Wish Foundation or to Liberty Hospice.