I’ll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I’ll be looking at the moon
But I’ll be seeing you

Joan Lansill Dawkins, born Mary Joan Lansill on February 9, 1924, in Buffalo, New York, to Gertrude (Powers) Lansill and Bradbury Lansill; and sister of William Lansill, passed away at her home in Blue Lake, California, on June 8, 2018 after a brief illness.

Joan and her family lived in many places during her youth including Detroit, Atlanta, Reading, Pennsylvania, and Columbus, Ohio. Some of Joan’s fondest memories were of summers spent at the family home on Silver Lake, New York, where she loved to row and fish.

In her junior year of high school Joan moved with her family to San Diego, where she attended Hoover High. In the autumn of 1942 Joan met Marine Lieutenant George Dawkins stationed at North Island as a fighter pilot, at The Little Club in the U.S. Grant Hotel, downtown San Diego. Joan and her friend Eleanor had obtained false IDs to allow them entry in the 21-and-over club. When Joan spotted a close friend of her older brother in the bar she knew she would be in for big trouble if he saw her, and spilled the beans. So Joan and Eleanor hatched a plan to ask someone in the bar to pretend they were Joan’s uncle, chaperoning the young women, and that someone ended up being George. The plan worked and later that evening, while dancing at the Officer’s Club on Point Loma, George told Joan he wanted to marry her. Six weeks later they were.

After World War II and many long military separations, Joan and George settled in Point Loma for a number of years before moving to Rancho Santa Fe. There Joan and George had their two daughters, Cornelia (Neil) and Anne, then settled in El Cajon in the mid-sixties. In 1969 the Dawkins family moved back to Columbus, Ohio, longing to be near extended family, and lived in the town of Powell, along the banks of the Sciota River. But they were back in southern California two years later, settling again in El Cajon.

By the early 1980s Joan and George found themselves living in the Southern California mountain town of Julian so they could be closer to their daughter Neil and her growing family. They bought the historic Kettner House, a block off Main Street, and filled it with many years of cherished memories with their granddaughters. At the age of seventy, Joan began a five-year career as chef at Orchard Hill Country Inn in Julian, where she earned a reputation creating and preparing delicious meals for the guests at the five-star inn. Shortly after Joan retired, George passed, four weeks shy of their 56th wedding anniversary. A year later Joan survived a diagnosis of breast cancer and two years later was courted and engaged to Ceasar Cappella, who tragically died in a car crash two months before they were to wed. Joan was critically injured in the same accident but survived the loss of Ceasar and recovered physically. By the mid-2000s Joan, along with the help of her daughters, opened a garden gift shop in the front of the Kettner House. The Blue Heron Garden Shop and Gallery was open for five years, attracting both locals and tourists and was the location of the Julian Daffodil Shows for two years. Joan moved with her family to Humboldt County in 2016 to be closer to her great-grandchildren and family.

Joan was preceded in death by her husband, George E. Dawkins, Jr., her mother, Gertrude Lansill, her father, Bradbury B. Lansill, her brother, William Lansill, and her fiancé, Ceasar Cappella. She is survived by her daughter Cornelia “Neil” Kruske and husband Mike Kruske of Eureka, her daughter Anne Dawkins and partner Michael Welch of Blue Lake, her granddaughters Molly Kindley and husband Willis Kindley of Eureka, and Rebecca Kruske and partner Chris Hancock of San Diego, her great-grandchildren Lacie and Jarett Kindley of Eureka, her former son-in-law Randal Colby of Julian, her extended relatives in California, Ohio, and beyond, the dear friends she met through St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church and Community United Methodist Church in Julian, her many, many friends, and her Chihuahua, Honey.

A celebration of life will be held Sunday, July 22nd at 2 p.m., at the home of her daughter and son-in-law Neil and Mike. In lieu of flowers the family suggests donations to Hospice of Humboldt County, to whom they are very grateful.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Joan Dawkins’ family. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.