Joan Burkhead Rhodes

JOAN BURKHEAD RHODES

Henderson, TN: Joan Evelyn Burkhead Rhodes, age 75 passed away peacefully Thursday afternoon on July 27, 2023, at Southern Oaks Assisted Living.

She was born December 19, 1947, in Chester County and grew up on Hearn Street, the daughter of the late L. E. ‘Jack’ and Georgia Beatrice ‘Bea’ Rush Burkhead. She graduated from Chester County High School in 1965 and graduated from Baptist Nursing School in Memphis with an RN degree. She married her high school sweetheart, Richard Cain of Deanburg. They made their home in Henderson. She began her nursing career at Jackson General Hospital in the early 70’s. Mr. Cain died in 1973.

She married Paul Rhodes in 1978.

She worked at Jackson General for over forty years, retiring from ninth floor in the respiratory department. She was a very caring nurse and was dearly loved by her patients.       

She was always the first to arrive and the last to leave at Trinity United Methodist Church where she was a member and taught Sunday school, VBS, served as lay leader and was involved in many other areas of the church and the Methodist Conference .

She started a ladies Bible study on Wednesday mornings and developed her own teaching curriculum. She had also taught a ladies Bible Study at Faith Fellowship. Joan was known as a “Prayer Warrior”.

She was an excellent grandmother to her three grandchildren even raising her grandson as her own from the age of three.  She often told her family she “loved them plumb behind her back”.

Mrs. Rhodes is survived by a daughter, Rebecca Anne Maness of Henderson and three grandchildren, Richard Clayton Lindsey, Malia Elizabeth Maness and Mattie Brooke Maness.

She was preceded in death by a daughter, Tonia Elizabeth Cain in 1997 and a brother, Harry Edward Burkhead in 2017.

Funeral services will be 2:00 PM Sunday, July 30^th at Shackelford Funeral Directors – Crook Avenue with Ken Frye and Keith Brown officiating. Burial will follow at Bethel Cemetery.

The family will receive friends at Crook Avenue 5:00 PM until 8:00 PM on Saturday and Sunday afternoon from 12 noon until funeral time.

Shackelford Funeral Directors

Henderson, TN  731-989-2421