Joan Therese Hancock

Joan was born September 23, 1937, in Springfield, Illinois, the daughter of Louis and Ellen (Gillespie) Fuhrman. She had four siblings: Mary Ellen Miller; Helen Patricia Maddox; Jerome L. “Tex” Fuhrman; and Ann Cecile Fuhrman.

Joan graduated from Sacred Heart Academy in Springfield in 1955. In 1957 she married Philip Stanley Hancock. They moved to Independence, Missouri, in 1959 and divorced in 1973. They had four children: David Jerome Hancock, who died in 1998; Amy Ellen Hancock, of Bethesda, Maryland; Peter Quentin Hancock, of Springfield, Illinois; and Edward (Ned) Philip Hancock, of Overland Park, Kansas.

After many years working as a legal secretary, Joan entered college in 1978. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1982. She then attended Northwestern University School of Law where she earned the prestigious John Henry Wigmore scholarship. She also served as executive editor of the Northwestern University Law Review and was selected by her peers as the class graduation speaker. She graduated in 1985 at age 47.

She worked briefly in private practice in Chicago and Springfield. She later became general counsel for the Illinois Teachers Retirement System and, following that, the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System.

In 2011 she married Jack Casner, of Raytown, Missouri. He died in October 2025. She is survived by her sister Ann, three children, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Private memorial services are pending. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to National Public Radio: www.npr.org/supportnpr.