JoAnn Condon White McKay died February 23 at Oak Hammock. Born November 11, 1930, in Miami, JoAnn attended Thomas Edison High School, then earned a B.S. with Honors in 1961 from the College of Nursing and the M.Ed. in 1964 from the University of Florida. She was a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the Nursing Honor Society.
JoAnn taught psychiatric nursing as an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and at two community colleges, Central Florida and San Mateo, California. She also was an in-service educator at numerous hospitals overa long career as a psychiatric nurse.
After moving to California in 1974 and receiving California State certification as a Psychiatric Clinical Nurse Specialist, JoAnn practiced at a hospital in Oakland, California, and also had a part-time private practice. She was a member of the Transactional Analysis, Gestalt Therapy, and Group and Family Therapy associations. She also was published in The Nurse as a Family Therapist and the Transactional Analysis news.
Central to JoAnn’s life was meditation, the development of inner consciousness, and holistic health. She studied Eastern spirituality at the California Institute of Integral Studies in 1980, and spent six months at the Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India, in 1982.
After retiring, JoAnn returned to Gainesville in 1999. She moved to Oak Hammock in 2014.
JoAnn will be remembered for her strength, her intelligence, her lifelong support for civil rights, and her belief in the ability of the individual to improve and grow.
She is survived by two daughters, Niccie McKay of Gainesvilleand Patricia Sipe McKay of Brisbane, Australia, by son-in-law Neil Sipe of Brisbane, by two granddaughters, Caroline and Catherine Sipe of Brisbane, and by one brother, Henry Clay White of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
JoAnn will be cremated, with no service or memorial, by her specific request. To honor her, please take a moment to think of her and to follow her advice to put kindness ahead of everything else.
Sweet dreams, JoAnn.
