Joan L. (Cessna) Reuschel

Joan Reuschel, age 94, a loving and devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, passed on to a better world on June 14, 2025.

Born in 1931, she was the daughter of Herbert and Edith (Reynolds) Cessna. Joan grew up in Cumberland, Maryland. She attended LaVale Elementary School and Allegany High School, where she graduated in the class of 1949.

In 1951 she met and married Carl Reuschel, a college student at the University of Maryland. After Carl’s graduation, they moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where he was hired in the start of the new computer department at DuPont. Joan took the L.P.N. exam in Baltimore and passed it to receive her nursing license.

She was a ‘stay at home mother’ to her four children, Linda, “Dutch”, Lisa, and David. When her youngest child started school, Joan took a nursing refresher course. She then worked as an L.P.N. in two nursing homes, ten years at Union Hospital, two years in home care nursing, and lastly, for Chesapeake Hospice as a hospice nurse.

Joan was involved in many activities during her life. She was a member of two churches where she taught Sunday School and Bible School. At Salem Church, she always helped in the preparation of their “famous” oyster dinner. Joan enjoyed membership in the Chestnut Hill Homemaker’s Club and the Red Hat Society. She was also a Girl Scout Troop Leader for Lisa and Linda’s troops. Later in life, Joan was a hospice volunteer and volunteered for the Salvation Army’s annual Christmas Stocking Project.

When Carl retired, he and Joan moved to Marydale Retirement Village in Newark. They spent summer months in their trailer at Homestead Campground in Sussex County. They spent 32 happy years there. And when Carl became ill, Joan was his hospice nurse.

In addition to her four children, Joan was a proud grandmother to Tara, Laura, Sammy, Jacob, Jackson, and the late Nathan. She also adored her great-grandchildren, Timothy and Emma.

Services for Joan will be private at the convenience of her family, and she will be interred privately with Carl at Delaware Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery in Bear, Delaware.

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