Joan Annette Tobias Bufkin

Joan Annette Tobias Bufkin, age 78, passed away at home on Christmas Eve. She was born in Belleville, IL on November 21, 1944.  She traveled the world as a child growing up in a military family.  In 1959, the family of nine moved from Tripoli to Long Beach, MS when Joan was fifteen years old.  Long Beach was an idyllic setting for seven children – with the beach as a backyard.  Sunbathing for hours, fishing, crabbing, floundering, swimming, skim boarding, bonfires, long walks, sunshine, and laughter. 

After Joan married, she moved to Dallas and started her own family.  She juggled raising three children while attending and graduating from Texas Women’s University with a degree in nursing in 1978.  She spent her career caring for others as an RN working in hospitals, home health care, corporate nursing and finished her career helping veterans at the Dallas VA hospital. 

Upon retirement, the salt air and love for the coast and family called to her and she moved back to Ocean Springs, MS where she could be close to the beach and her family again.  Reunited with her sister Judy and the remaining family on the coast, she once again filled everyone with stories and memories of their childhood – full of adventure and mischief, but also always full of love.  As a central part of a large family, she was an essential part of a bond that cannot be broken. 

She is preceded in death by her parents, John and Florence Tobias; and brother, Tommy Tobias.  She is survived by three sisters, three brothers, three children and nine grandchildren.  We will miss her.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 AM on Thursday, January 5, 2023 at Bradford-O’Keefe Funeral Home in Ocean Springs, MS. Friends may visit one hour prior.

Bradford-O’Keefe Funeral Home is honored to serve the family of Joan Annette Tobias Bufkin.