Joan (Powers) Buck DeFilippo

Joan Powers Buck DeFilippo

Joan Powers Buck DeFilippo was born on April 1, 1930, in Carroll, Iowa, to parents Thomas Leonard (Len) Powers and Mary Magdalene (Robinson) Powers. The fourth of eleven children, Joan grew up on the family farm as well in the town of Vail, Iowa.

She attended St. Anne’s High School and graduated in 1948. Upon graduation, she moved to Sioux City, Iowa to begin cosmetology school. She lived in a large house with other cosmetology students. She loved living with Mrs. Mack and the girls.

She graduated from the Ellis School of Cosmetology on October 12, 1950 and went to work as a beautician in Sioux City. She enjoyed living and working in the city and was so happy to be able to send money home to her parents. She also loved being able to dress in Lilli Ann suits and would describe them to us in detail.

In the mid-1950’s she followed her sister Sally to Reedsport, Oregon. It was here that she met and married our dad, Harold Gail Buck, on September 23, 1956.

She opened her first beauty shop in Reedsport with her sister, Sally, and on March 31, 1958, her first child, Michelle Marie, was born.

Photographs show this to be a very busy time. Her life was filled with her shop, raising a daughter, many friends and her once in a lifetime trip to New York City with our dad. Iconic photos remain of that trip and she loved it there.

On June 15, 1961, her second child, George Anthony, was born. In May 1962 she and dad bought a new house and moved to what would become her home for the rest of her life. It was here that she opened her second business, “Joan’s Beauty Nook”, in a shop right behind our house. To our dismay she could pop into the house at any moment and often caught my brother and me watching forbidden television shows like Star Trek and Dark Shadows. She was amazingly silent coming through that back door.

These years were also filled with friends, family and the arts. She loved music, ballet and theater. She worked hard in that little beauty shop and that work helped to ensure ballet and piano lessons for us, unforgettable summer trips back to Iowa to see our grandparents and cousins (wonderful visits right up until we had to “walk the beans” in the sweltering Iowa heat).

In 1971 her love affair with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival began with Romeo and Juliet in their outdoor theater. After that summer we went yearly to see two plays, have chess pies (dad’s favorite) and stay in the Motel 6 - we thought it was so exciting!! Her interests fostered lifelong interests for my brother and me as well.

It was during this time that she began wood refinishing, gold leaf frame projects and taking sewing lessons. She became a prolific and spectacular seamstress. The clothes she made were beautiful. The outfits she made for me in high school looked like they came straight out of Seventeen Magazine. I was a lucky girl.

It was also during this time that our dad began to suffer serious health problems. Still she worked, she sewed and took care of the house and an increasingly ill husband. She truly demonstrated what the words “to love and honor in sickness and in health” really mean.

She showed fidelity in all that she did. She was a genuine friend and her word was her bond. A secret told to her would never be repeated. A tried and true Catholic, her rosary and prayer book were never far from her hands. Her faith was her rock and she never wavered as she faced all that life asked of her.

In 1984 her first and only grandchild, Sabra Elizabeth, was born. She absolutely loved being a grandmother. There was no frilly dress, with matching everything, that did not find its way to our door.

In August 1986, our dad passed away. A very difficult time for her - she relied heavily on her faith and her sister, Sally, who was a constant source of comfort. It was Sally who introduced her to golf which helped to pull her through this difficult time. Mom absolutely loved golf and through it made a host of beautiful friends - The Birthday Girls. She also participated in Altar Society at St. John the Apostle Catholic Church and, unbeknownst to us - rode horses as part of working through the loss of our dad.

Ever elegant and eclectic, in the late 1990s a new chapter was around the corner. It was during this time that she caught the eye of Don DeFilippo at coffee after church. They married in January 2000. With Don she experienced a second spring and a return to pursuits that were left on hold with the passing of our dad. Their lives were filled with their devotion to their faith, a mutual love of golf, the arts, friends and family. With Don she was able to experience something new as well - travel. They went to Europe, sailed on cruises and attended theater and music events up and down the coast of Oregon.

She was also to experience the joys of becoming a great grandmother - a role she cherished. On January 13, 2006, Myles Damond Douris was born followed by Nyah Elizabeth Douris on July 9, 2010. They loved to visit grandma. It was a big trip for them coming all the way to the south coast. They looked forward to the adventure, wrote about it in their school papers and even declared the Christmas lights at Shore Acres to be better than Disneyland.

She was a woman who wore many hats - literally and figuratively! Sister, mother, grandmother, aunt, friend, devoted wife, business woman - one size did not fit all. A woman of many names - call her what you will, from sparkling Birthday Girl to Dr. J., the undisputed enforcer of the summer curfew - she was larger than life. No single descriptor could take in all that she was.

After the passing of her husband, Don, in April 2021, she continued to live in her home although her health went into decline.

She was born on a Tuesday and left us on a Tuesday. The children’s nursery rhyme tells us that Tuesday’s child is full of grace. And so she was. Faithful and formidable, she faced life’s many challenges even when it wore her down. She did not shrink from what she felt was her duty and she accomplished all that she was given to do.

Having lived a long, full life - in the early morning of September 22, 2026, after hearing the rosary, she opened her eyes for the last time and was rewarded for her labors. At home, as she wished to remain, surrounded by the deep peace she hoped for, she gazed into heaven and found heaven gazing back.

At her core she was Catholic through and through, a proud Iowa farm girl, a Powers girl, she loved her Irish roots, her family and her friends. She gave all she had and then some.

Preceded in death by her parents, Thomas and Mary Powers, her 10 siblings Jack, George, Sally, Jean, Mary Carol, Rosalie, Kay, Nancy, Janie and Joe, along with her beloved brothers- and sisters-in-law who passed before her; our dad, Harold G. Buck as well as her husband, Don DeFilippo. She was the last of the birthday girls, the last of an era whose legacy lives on in the lives of all her family who remain. She was one of a kind and her reunion with all those laughing souls is a joy to recall in the midst of sadness.

It is a joy, to think of all the love she gets to keep, the rest she so deeply earned, the promise of heaven fulfilled. It can truly be said of her that she is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.