CDR JoAnne Lorraine Schmitt, US Navy (Retired), age 77, passed away on May 18, 2021 at UCSD Jacobs Hospital from complications due to cancer. She was surrounded by family at her passing.  Formerly of Fairmount, ND, she was a long time San Diego resident, purchasing her home in 1975 and living there since then except when navy assignments took her to other locations.

JoAnne was born on August 4, 1943, in Crookston, MN to Joseph Meinrod Schmitt and Barbara Ann (Schneider) Schmitt. When JoAnne was 4 years old, the family moved to Fairmount, ND where she grew up and attended schools. She graduated from Fairmount High School as Valedictorian in 1961. She then attended Valley City State Teachers College, graduating with a BA in 1965. At her graduation ceremony she was commissioned as an Ensign in the US Navy, having completed Women Officer School the previous two summers.

JoAnne started active duty in 1965 as a computer programmer/analyst for tactical systems. She followed that with many roles including ADP Plans Officer, Contracting Officer, Comptroller, Navy Recruiter, Commanding Officer - Naval Recruiting District and Executive Officer – NARDAC. Her assignments carried her to locations across the country including Newport, RI, Washington, DC, Chicago, IL, Indianapolis, IN, San Francisco, CA, Monterey, CA and San Diego CA. She received her MBA in Computer Technology from the Naval Postgraduate School in March 1976.

She retired from the Navy on March 1, 1989 and lived in her home in San Diego for the rest of her life, doing volunteer work and participating in family activities with her brother and his family. Family was important to her and she maintained contact with and visited with her sisters and their children in the mid west, with whom she had developed a close relationship while young and maintained through later life.

She was a long time member of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church and a mainstay volunteer for many of the parish's ministries and functions.  She served as the lead Sacristan and was an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharistic for many years. She provided support to families in their bereavement and trained others to do the same. For Masses, she would ensure that all was ready, that the altar was properly prepared and altar servers and lectors were in place. No job was too big or too small, from laundering altar linens to supervising and participating in cleaning of the church to providing admin support for fiestas. Whenever there was a job that someone else wasn't doing, JoAnne could be counted upon to step in and get it done.

She was preceded in death by her parents and her sisters, Irene A. Hedtke and Roselyn J. Schmitt. She is survived by her sister, Mary Jane Pauly, Wahpeton, ND and her brother Joseph B. Schmitt (Sugar), San Diego, CA and numerous nieces and nephews.

A prayer service will be held at Poway-Bernardo Mortuary from 6:00pm to 8:00pm, June 30, 2021. A Funeral Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church will be celebrated at 10:00am, July 1, 2021. Interment with Full Military Honors will be at Miramar National Cemetery 12:30pm July 1, 2021.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church.