Joan Marie Earnest, 76, of Chesapeake Beach, MD passed away August 6, 2013 at South River Health and Rehabilitation Center in Edgewater, MD. She was born February 26, 1937 in Washington, D.C. to Logan Hamilton and Nellie Katherine (Munday) Kline. Joan was raised in a boat house in Georgetown on the Potomac River and attended Washington, D.C. schools. She married Philip J. Earnest, Jr. on June 20, 1953 in Washington, D.C. They lived in D.C. until 1967 when they moved to Mayo and then settled in Chesapeake Beach in 1989. She was a member of the Stallings-Williams American Legion Post 206 Ladies Auxiliary. Joan loved Halloween, horror books and movies and telling her famous ghost stories. She also enjoyed crocheting.

Joan was preceded in death by her husband, Philip J. Earnest, Jr., a daughter Joan Marie Hill, one brother and five sisters. She is survived by daughters Deborah Bouchelle and husband Allen of Ferguson, NC, Betty Halen and husband Joe of Edgewood, MD, and Rose Call and husband Wayne of Chesapeake Beach, MD. Also surviving are six grandchildren, eighteen great-grandchildren and a sister Nellie Mawson of California, MD.