Joan Christensen Hahn was never meant for a small life.

Born May 9, 1933, in Kemmerer, Wyoming, to Bernice Pringle Wainwright and Roy Wainwright. She passed away September 22, 2026. Joan graduated from Kemmerer High School in 1951 before attending Brigham Young University, where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in speech and drama with a minor in English. She also played the flute in the marching band in both high school and at BYU.

Joan spent her life doing what she loved most: teaching, directing, performing, traveling, spending time with family and bringing people together.

A professional ballroom dancer for eight years, Joan had a lifelong love of performance and the arts. She went on to teach at Payson High School and Cottonwood High School, where she spent decades teaching speech and drama. She directed more than 150 stage productions and received numerous honors throughout her career, including Speech Educator of the Year, Outstanding Educator, Utah House of Representatives Teacher of the Year, and recognition from the International Thespian Association Hall of Fame, Ohio Thespian Hall of Fame, Cottonwood High School Hall of Fame, National Women’s Hall of Fame and Utah Theatre Association.

The awards are her accomplishments, but her impact is her legacy.

She deeply loved every student and wanted them to succeed. In turn, her students earned numerous state drama competition honors under her direction. She taught thousands of students who still remember her impact. Throughout her life she was easily recognized by her BIG red hair, and was often stopped in airports, stores and everywhere in between by former students and people who wanted to tell her how she had influenced their careers and their lives.

She was a legend in her own time.

Joan’s classroom was certainly not the only place she taught.

Travel became another great chapter of her life. She worked as a travel agent for over six decades before opening her own business, The Travel Passport Travel Agency, in 1992, where she continued to direct tours around the world, eventually traveling to 113 countries and six continents. She loved taking students and travelers with her to see a world many of them may never have experienced otherwise.

Travel was more than just visiting a place for Joan. She loved to teach, study and learn. Just last year, at the young age of 92, she enjoyed her final trip, studying D Day in Britain and along the beaches of France.

Joan also spent decades serving and leading. She served for 20 years as Region Dance Director for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and held leadership positions with educational theatre and speech arts organizations. She was recognized among the “Greatest Minds of the 21st Century,” was named “Woman of the Year for 1990,” served as President of UVU Elder Quest and remained committed to lifelong learning.

Joan married Milton Christensen in 1952, and together they had two children, Randall (Randy) Christensen and Carla Teasdale. They later divorced. She then married Charles Hahn in 1972, and they shared their life together until his death in 1988.

Joan’s family continued to grow through the generations. She leaves behind a posterity of children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great- grandchildren, along with a family that carries pieces of her forward.

Joan was reunited in death with her parents, Bernice and Roy Wainwright and her beloved brother, Arlyn Wainwright.

She is survived by her children, Randy and Sharlene Christensen and Carla and Keith Teasdale both of Spanish Fork, Utah; her grandchildren, Dallas and Shonie Christensen, Cameron and Marie Christensen, Allyson and Jourdan Gwilliam, Austin Teasdale, Shawn Ward, Matt and Sarah Ward, Jason and Andrea Ward and Stefany Hunt; along with her 20 great-grandchildren and 4 great-great-grandchildren.

Joan loved life and was incredibly grateful to have lived 93 years. She often said, “This life is a one-way trip, and I am going to live every minute of it.”

Her life motto was, “If it is worth doing, it is worth doing well!” And she lived that motto in everything she did. Whether she was teaching a student, directing a production, planning a tour, learning something new, yelling “BRAVO!” at her grandchildren’s sporting events or spending time with the people she loved, Joan showed up fully.

The extraordinary thing about her life isn’t that she lived 93 years, visited 113 countries, directed more than 150 productions, taught for decades, or traveled the world. It’s that nothing mattered more to Joan than her family. She was incredibly proud of the family she built and the 4 generations that came after her.

Beyond all the things she did and accomplished, her greatest legacy can be found in the number of people who can say:

“My life is better because I knew Joan.”

Viewing service Thursday 10/1/26 from 6-8 pm at Walker Funeral Home located at 187 South Main Spanish Fork, Ut 84660

Funeral service Friday 10/2/26 at 11 am with a viewing prior from 10- 10:45 at the LDS church located at 25 W Apple Blossom Way, Salem, UT 84653