Patsy JoAnn Cochran

Submitted by Dawalt Funeral Home

Patsy JoAnn Cochran entered this world on November 28, 1950 to Raymond L. Cochran and Josephine (Tegel) Cochran. She departed 75 years later on May 15, 2026 at Nortons Clark Hospital in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

JoAnn, a resident of Salem, Indiana, graduated from Salem High School in 1969. She enjoyed traveling on Toby bus tours, collecting Boyds Bears, and holiday sweatshirts. She had the heart of a child on Halloween, Christmas, and especially Thanksgiving as she was the first turkey baby in our family…I was the second. She enjoyed researching the Cochran genealogy, and was proud the family roots originated in Ireland.

As a rock ‘n’ roll girl at heart, she attended many concerts, but her favorites were the Rolling Stones, Ike and Tina Turner, and Fleetwood Mac. She recorded songs on cassette tapes and talked about her albums she collected as a teenager. On car trips, the music boomed, and she sang along with the lyrics. At my graduation open house, Aunt JoAnn broke out in song, serenading me and my classmates.

She loved talking musical stuffed animals and the sounds of her infectious laughter as she played would draw curious shoppers to the toy aisles to discover the source of the gleeful noise. Her joyful or sinister laughter encouraged chuckles from us even though we did not always know the cause.

Aunt Joann loved Hallmark movies, gave my mom her first puppy, and enjoyed sitting on the porch talking with Josh Smith. He mowed her yard and was right when he said she was a hoot! She was a breast cancer survivor too!

Surviving members of her family include niece Natalie King, great nephew Brenden (Amanda) and great-great niece Olivia King, great nephew Christopher King, nephew, Scott Colglazier and John Colglazier, niece Nancy (Don) Wilder, and niece Carolyn (Jeff) Gannaway, and sister-in-law, Faye Cochran.

Her parents, sisters Joyce Colglazier, Pat Franklin, and Sylvia Rutherford, brother, Lee Roy Cochran, and brother-in-law, John Rutherford, proceeded her in death.

On Saturday, May 23, 2026, the visitation will be from 1:00 p.m to 2:00 p.m. The funeral service will be at 2:00 p.m., both at Dawalt Funeral home, 204 E. Market St., Salem, IN 47167, and the interment will follow in Crown Hill Cemetery.