Obituary of Joan E. Van Dyke

Joan Van Dyke, aged 81, passed away at home on Tuesday, September 7, 2021. Although a long-time Tunkhannock resident, Joan was born and raised with her three brothers on a small family farm in northern New Jersey. Joan was married to her first husband, Peter DeNure, in 1959, and settled in Wayne, New Jersey, where they had their only child, Cindy. After her divorce in the early 1980s, Joan received a fresh start. After months of pressure from her teenage daughter and her friends to go out and meet someone, Joan went out one night to the bar down the street, just to “shut them up.” She sat at the end of the bar, ordered white wine, and talked to no one but the bartender all night. Her plan backfired, for she married that bartender, Franklin Van Dyke, in 1986. They moved to Tunkhannock in 1998 and remained together until his passing in 2009. Now, 12 long years later, they are finally reunited. Joan is survived by her daughter, Cindy Bush and her husband Karl, her grandchildren, Sabrina Denman and her husband Joshua, Angelica Bush and her fiancé Alex Lauf, and Erica Bush, her great-grandchildren, Sydney, LeeAnne, and Jaxson, and her three brothers, Harvey, Arnold, and Brian Peterson. A private memorial service will be held by the family in New Jersey. Arrangements and care entrusted to Sheldon-Kukuchka Funeral Home, Inc. 73 W. Tioga St. Tunkhannock, PA 18657.