Joan Z. Kippert

Although not finished, I have been told that I, Joan Zorbaugh Kippert, have passed away. All red wines and Cheezits may be devasted by my loss; it was great while it lasted.

Bits and pieces predeceased me starting with tonsils at age 4 because my 8-year-old brother Charles “Parky” needed his out and my parents got a BOGO at the hospital in Oberlin, Ohio, which had been blessed with my birth on December 14, 1935.

My father, Frederick McClure Zorbaugh, was a professor at Oberlin College on December 7, 1941 when all hell broke loose. Look it up on Google if you don’t recall, WWII. On Dec. 8 he joined the US Navy. My mom, Marion Parker Zorbaugh, packed us all up to begin an amazing journey including questionable housing near bases at Norman OK, Livermore, CA, Chapel Hill, NC and finally Jacksonville before the craziness stopped in 1945. Dad, as a Navy Commander could have been missioned to Japan (would have been my choice) but, great Florida weather enticed us all to Miami to bask in sunshine. Dad returned to teaching Sociology, Marriage in the Family and Criminology at the University of Miami.

Coral Gables High School was a great four years for me. I joined every club I could, organized several school dances convincing celebrities including singer Johnny Ray (Cry) to entertain. My journalism class challenged me to use those skills to interview celebrities for the school paper. I sent a cigar to comedian Milton Berle’s hotel room so he had to come down to thank me. Found Arthur Godfrey in a pool cabana at his favorite hotel on Miami Beach. When he received the article he talked about it on his very popular morning radio program. There were several long-forgotten singers. Miami was the place to be in the 50’s. Finding my voice to command others started a life-long use of it. I marched in front of the great CGHS Marching Band which in addition to halftimes and parades traveled all over for performances, including Cuba which we reached on a WWII destroyer escort in hurricane-like winds in 1951. Ahh, Havana, where car horns replace traffic lights.

After that above-mentioned war my folks sold our summer log cabin on Rock Lake, in Algonquin National Park, Ontario, Canada. That was sad as Dad had built the log cabin in his youth. However, Miami to Canada by car in those times was a very long hot trip. They built a new cabin at 4,500 ft in Balsam, NC, near Waynesville which we loved. That move actually started a trove of UM faculty to summering up there.

While at Florida State University I spent summers in Waynesville teaching classes in baton twirling at the high school. Strains of music wafted out during classes. Charles Alley was also rehearsing his jazz-dance band ensemble in the band room. He had been at an Oklahoma university but returned to FSU that fall with me. We soon married and Charles became a school band director so it was imperative that I teach the majorettes. Although my university studies were in the visual arts, I soon had hundreds of twirling students in Pensacola, then Cocoa, Florida. The Co-Eds at Brevard Community College performed for basketball halftimes. I held one-week summer training camps in Florida for years while also teaching at other camps around the US. At times I was teaching as many as 80 girls a week in my studio or at local schools, training many state champions over the years. In 1968 my team won the national championship and I was named “1969 Dance-twirl teacher of the year” by the National Baton Twirling Association.

Our family had grown first with Charles Frederick “Rick” Alley, now of Jacksonville in 1956 and in 1958 my daughter DeAnne Alley Preston, currently in Portland, OR. We all have great memories of living in Cocoa during the Mercury and Gemini NASA missions, often encountering astronauts and frequently having items fall from the walls because of sonic booms and rockets taking off. We watched the important manned launches from our driveway.

Back in Tallahassee in 1971, divorced, armed with Masters in Higher Education and Fine Arts I joined the faculty at Tallahassee Community College to develop the Photography program while teaching photo imagery and dark room skills. In 1975 I married Stefan Kippert with the Leica camera company. Great cameras and great guy. We had a wonderful 12 years before he died at 51 in Delray Beach, FL. Those were the happiest years of my life.

As a photographer I had 11 solo shows and 22 group shows in US and Germany. My company, Image Update, Inc., started in the 70’s doing graphic arts and odd artistic endeavors. In 1987 after the US Supreme Court determined that all men’s civic clubs must be all inclusive, I was the first female in Florida asked to join Rotary Club (Delray Beach). Two days later at a district conference in Boca Raton I walked a long aisle to join my colleagues only to hear hissing, etc. Several booed when the court decision was read, many determined to fight it. This day of lunch and meetings gave me a real feel for what it is like to be a “token” member of anything.  After the 7 years in Rotary, I held several offices. About the same time, I joined The Haven Board of Directors, an active Boca Raton live-in campus for abandoned and abused teenagers. I enjoyed my affiliation with the Professional Artists Committee of the Palm Beach County Arts Council.

In 1990’s with partners, Allen and Judy Marcovitch, I worked several ventures with Commercial Real Estate remaining the most dominate (licensed in 1981), although manufacturing a tire sealant to prevent flats held forth for several years in the 90’s during one of those long slow real estate times. With that challenge I appeared on HSN and QVC several times. Once as I demonstrated the puncture by stabbing the tire with an ice pick, the sealant spurted out onto the trousers of the host who yelped and ran off. It was 2 am. In 2000 we were back as Anaheim Properties, Inc., remaining active in commercial real estate as I write this.

A member of Pi Beta Phi (1954) I was happy to join the Boca Raton Alumni Club. It was a pleasure to be President for a couple of years and attend the 2003 National Convention in Anaheim, CA.

Turning 79 I got an urge to make something out of vintage items no one wanted. That started “Stuff Rethunk”, making sculptural pieces out of metal items such as oil cans, old coffee pots, 1930’s roller skates, any kitchen item, etc. The only common touch they each have is a dangling clockface with a red second hand tipped with a guinea feather. Arthritis in my hands put a stop to that after 4 years. What fun it was. In all I sold or gave away about 100 of them. In 2020 I took down my website.

I enjoyed traveling and managed to visit 34 countries, some more than once like Mexico, Germany and Italy.

As I am writing, the world is in the midst of the 2020 Coronavirus C-19 pandemic. I have been in Jacksonville 13 years. Rick has been living with me as we help each other through this. It hasn’t made a significant difference in my real estate business as I have been doing marketing and research from here for years while head office remains in Palm Beach County. Thankfully, I have had time to make masks for friends which has kept me feeling somewhat useful. For 10 years I have been volunteering a few hours a week at the Community Hospice Thrift Shop near me which I now miss.

Regrets? Many, especially the deterioration of our wonderful language. The millennium tossed out adverbs, then misused adjectives and pronouns were interchanged. All for the worse. Sadly, I have read NYT top booklist and award winners containing these grammar errors. Editors, where art thee? Adding to that language I regret “Trumpism” has become a derisive word frequently used in foreign films and books.

Hopefully the Democrats will heal the Trump damage and restore our great country and international respect.

In addition to my dear children I leave my beloved stepson, Gary Paul Kippert, wife Jennifer, son Tyler and daughter Casey, of Rincon, GA.

I am predeceased in death by much loved canines Shad, Lobo and the “space dog”, Betsy, who was discovered on the Cape Kennedy launch pad in 1964. Felines include Inky, Smokie, Clyde, Joshua, Jezebel, Bogart and Samantha. Many wonderful fuzzy memories.