Nancy Joan Lueker

Nancy Joan Lueker, (née Downey), was born on January 19, 1933, on a dude ranch in Eden, Texas, to Donna Marie Downey (née Latson) and Irby Alphonse Downey. The youngest of three children, Joan (pronounced "Joann") loved playing "Cowboys and Indians" with her brother, David, and sister, Gene. The lava rocks and petroglyphs on the West Mesa of Albuquerque where her family moved when she was a girl were the cupboard for her China tea set. Her family later moved to the South Valley before her parents separated and divorced, only to be remarried many years later-a minor miracle in which Joan played a hand.

Joan was among the first graduating class from Highland High School in 1950 and her first job was taking tickets at the newly built Highland Movie Theatre. Joan graduated from UNM in 1955, a Pi Beta Phi ingénue who drove a green Crosley Hotshot with a plaid convertible top that the fraternity boys would pick up and move as a prank. At a 50 Year Reunion of her graduating class, Joan was voted the least changed.

After college, Joan taught second grade and studied Opera in Mexico. She stunned as a Maid of Cotton in the mid-1950s Albuquerque debutante society. She worked for Senator Clinton Anderson in Washington, DC. In 1958, she married Richard Daniel Lueker, who became a beloved local cardiologist. As a mother, Joan devoted all she could to her four children, endeavoring to provide them with a beautiful home life. She was an avid gardener and had a prolific green thumb. She loved music, gardens, and books. She had a discriminating aesthetic sense, with which she could have been a buyer for Sotheby's. She always sought to leave a place, or a person, better than she found it. A faithful servant of Jesus, she called him a gentleman, whom she said showed her only as much of herself as she could handle at any one time, and never gave her more than she could bear. No day began without her reading her Daily Devotional.

Joan passed away on Christmas Eve, 2024, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her father, Irby Alphonse Downey, who passed away on Christmas Eve in 1982 and her sister Gene, who passed away on Christmas Day in 2021, lit the path home for her, to celebrate Christmas together again.

Joan is survived by her four children, Rob Lueker and wife, Patti Lueker, Steve Lueker and wife, Jamie Lueker, Alison Lueker-Ritter and husband, Chris Lueker-Ritter, and Kathryn (Kate) Lueker-Eaton; and her grandchildren, Hudson and Justin Lueker, Diego Wren, Cade and Fauna Lueker, and Aidan Irby and Madeline Antonia Briggs Eaton.

A Celebration of Life honoring our Mother, and our larger family's Auntie Jo, will be held Thursday, January 2, 2025, 1:00 p.m., at FRENCH - University. Family and friends are welcome to join us in remembrance of her spirit, share stories, and celebrate the time we had with her.