Joan Anne Martien was born May 6, 1943, to Lucille (Montijo) and Norman Martien, who worked as a wardrobe man at Twentieth-Century Fox Studios. Following her parents’ divorce a couple of years later, she and her mother and brother, Jerry, moved to her grandmother’s home in Redlands, where she attended elementary school. Her mother employed her bilingual skills as a switchboard operator, and in 1948 re-married to Troy “Mac” McMillan, a lineman for Pacific Telephone.
The family moved again when Mac was transferred to Perris in Riverside County, where she soon made new friends and was enthusiastically a Brownie, a Girl Scout, then in high school a popular cheerleader at PUHS. She made lifelong friends among the ranch and farm kids, who had the best parties and drove the hottest cars. She got her first job at the Frostee Freeze, where she met and worked with lifelong friend Glenda Reeley, who would later marry her brother and move to Humboldt County.
Joanie lived with an aunt in Anaheim while attending Fullerton JC, then studied art and graphics at Long Beach State, where she completed her Master of Fine Arts. After graduating she worked as a graphic designer at Douglas Aircraft, then as a freelancer for Disney and other Southern California design firms. While living in Long Beach she met and married Michael Stuhlsatz, a seaman with the Merchant Marine, with whom she had a daughter, Elizabeth Anne. Following their divorce, Lizzy continued to live with her mother in Long Beach where, like Joanie, she studied at Long Beach State and began a career in graphic design. Joanie coached Lizzy’s softball team, and for the rest of her life wore the team’s red warm-up jacket.
In the early ’90s Joanie moved to Humboldt and soon found a job at Plaza Design where she again worked with her former sister-in-law, now Glenda Test. The years at P-D were some of her happiest and most creative, engaging her gift for design and organizing to the fullest, from curating and hanging artists’ shows to overseeing furniture deliveries. Her employer, former Humboldt County Supervisor Julie Fulkerson, recalls, “She was a maven; knew everyone and where every single item was and what it cost and who the customers were. She was one I could depend on for anything at all … for years! She was a gem.”
After Joanie’s retirement from P-D, she returned to her early love of painting, attending Humboldt State University Art Department’s studio class for several years. The death of her best friend Glenda, then her daughter Lizzy, were blows from which Joanie struggled to recover. She lived most of her last decade in an apartment rented from potter Peggy Loudon, where she continued her painting and enjoyed long walks around Arcata, making new friends along her routes.
Joanie’s walks grew shorter as she became less sure of finding her way home. Eventually she would walk only as far as the nearest corner, waiting there in case someone was coming to pick her up. Travelers on Fickle Hill Road remember her as the woman in the red beret who always waved as they passed.
In her final years, she continued to make friends in the nearby neighborhood and was sustained and cared for by her adopted family, Laura Hernandez and Nikki Gantney. With assistance from Peggy, Laura, and Nikki, Joanie was able to live contentedly on her own, even as her memory faded. Joanie passed away peacefully on Nov. 22, 2024, after a brief residence at a care facility in Novato.
Joanie is survived by her brother Jerry Martien, Jerry’s wife Jenny Finch, nephew Phil Martien, Phil’s wife Sandi Potter, their daughters Lindsay and Julia Martien, nephew Robert Martien, Rob’s partner Eddie Ailao, and Lizzy’s husband Chris Sekeres.
Joanie will be remembered by family and friends for her quick laugh, festive spirit and amazing design sense. Nephews and great nieces especially remember their Aunt Joanie’s handmade gifts of clothing, cards and holiday decorations, always colorfully wrapped with imagination and love. In spring, a memorial celebration of Joanie’s life will take place in Arcata.
This article appears in Through Mark Larson’s Lens 2025.