Joan I. Madden, 

60, died in Fairbanks on Aug. 10, 2009, after a 10-year battle 
with colorectal cancer. With incredible fortitude and 
determination, Joanie showed the rest of us, by her daily example 
of courage and hope, how to live. 

Joanie was known for her kind heart, sweet smile, and thoughtful 
concern for others. To the very end, she was more concerned with 
the comfort of her caregivers than herself. 

Joan was born in Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, in 1948, the 
oldest of six children. In 1966, the Worrall family settled in 
Fairbanks. Joan was crowned Miss Fairbanks in 1968. She met her 
future husband, Walter Lee Shackelford, at the University of 
Alaska in 1967. In 1973, Joan and Lee's only child, Teresa, was 
born.

In 1978, Joan became a dispensing optician, and in 1985 received 
her optician's license. She was voted the Alaskan Optician of the 
Year in 1993. During her optical career, Joan served on the 
Alaska Board of Opticians. She served on the North Pole City 
Council 1980-1981. In 1989, she was given the North Pole 
Community Chamber of Commerce Member of the Year award. 

In the same year, Joan founded the I-DID-A-BLOCK sled dog race 
for local businesses. This raised money for the purse of the 
North Pole Championship Sled Dog Race held every year during the 
North Pole Winter Carnival. Joan participated in the business 
race for several years and finally won it in March 1995. She also 
volunteered for six years at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, mainly 
working with the Bereavement Care Program. 

Joan married Wayne Madden, the love of her life, in Fairbanks in 
1996. Her hobbies included baking her famous cookies and 
sourdough bread, gardening, cabin life on the Salcha River, and 
more recently, snow-birding in Yuma, Ariz. 

Joan is survived by her husband, Wayne Madden of Fairbanks; 
daughter, Teresa and husband Larry Plummer and grandchildren, 
Paul and Naomi, all of Idaho; father, J.A. Worrall, MD (Mary) of 
Fairbanks, and mother, Theresa Myslicki (Paul) of Texas; 
brothers, Bill Worrall (Inna) of Anchorage, Jim Worrall of 
Colorado, and Joe Worrall (Jennifer) of California; sisters, Mary 
Loll (Scott) of California, and Judy Snyder (Mike) of Texas; 
stepdaughter, Cindy Shufeldt (Darek), grandchildren Derek and 
Daryn of Oregon; stepson, Jeremy Madden (Nicole), grandchildren 
Austin and Michael Wayne of Fairbanks, along with numerous nieces 
and nephews and many wonderful friends in Fairbanks, Yuma and 
throughout the country. Also surviving Joan is the sourdough 
starter that she made from scratch in 1978 with potatoes grown in 
her North Pole garden.

In lieu of flowers, Joan requested that donations be made to any 
of the following charities: Lions Club, Doctors Without Borders, 
Catholic Schools of Fairbanks, HIPOW, and American Cancer 
Society.

A celebration of life will be held at the IBEW, 2000 Airport Way, 
at 5 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 13. Friends are invited to bring 
favorite hors d'oeuvres and memories to share.

Arrangements were by Fairbanks Funeral Home.

Published in the Daily News-Miner on 8/11/2009