Mrs. JoAnne Mohon Pharis

(1929-2015) taught Theatre, Public Speaking, Debate, English, and Civics at Pineville High School from 1969-1994, and previously taught at Bossier High School and West Monroe High School.

She loved theatre, travel, and bass fishing with her husband James. She was an avid reader, who took joy in continued learning, delving into subjects ranging from watercolor painting to world affairs and politics.

Her degree in Speech Education, with an emphasis in directing and acting, was the foundation of her ability to teach well the fundamentals of stagecraft. She loved helping her students develop the motivation of each character they portrayed on stage. Also, she often enlisted the expertise and assistance of parents and community members to help backstage crews create and build sets and lighting designs, develop costumes, apply makeup, and gather props, creating an atmosphere of cooperative endeavor within the school as well as in the local community. Her overarching motivation was always her passion for guiding her students to become excellent, productive human beings through their experiences in high school theatre.

Mrs. Pharis’s students’ welfare was a very high priority throughout her teaching career and beyond, and she maintained close connections with several students well beyond their high school years. Upon her death in 2015, former students reminisced that Mrs. Pharis had been a “favorite teacher,” one who “helped me find my vocation and helped shape me into the person I am,” and one who “helped me see things in a different light, in ways I hadn't considered before.” Others mentioned her teaching them to “think ‘outside the box’,” and being the kind of teacher who “never once pushed, [but] gently guided...a source of inspiration.” Teaching colleagues admired “her ability to remain cheerful and positive during rather trying times,” and observed that she was “always kind and pleasant, even when she didn't share a person's viewpoint.”

Mrs. Pharis was married to James A. Pharis, Jr. for 49+ years, and she was fiercely supportive of her family — her daughter Kathleen Pharis of Ajijic, Jalisco, MX, her son James “Jim” Pharis and wife, Tawnya-Kee of Sunset, Louisiana, her son J. Scott Pharis (deceased), and her grandson Jonathan Pharis of Gongju, South Korea. She is remembered with deep love and great appreciation.