Joann Riley Pitochelli was born February 24, 1944 and grew up in South Gate. She attended San Gabriel Elementary School, South Gate Junior and Senior High Schools.  She married in December, 1962 to Tony Pitochelli and they had one son, James Anthony, born in 1967.  They moved to Whittier in 1977 and she went back to school to get a degree and credential to teach.  She taught kindergarten for 32 years.  Tony passed away in 1999 from cancer and she then moved to Yorba Linda in October, 1999 to live with her son and his wife, Irene, and their two children, Ysabella and Adryan.  Joann went back to working with children for the Placentia/Yorba Linda School District as a supervisor, working with children in the classrooms and with 5^th and 6^th graders.  The last few years she has fought a long, hard battle with cancer until she passed away October 30, 2016.  She will be dearly missed by her loving family, sister, Nancy Riley Johnson, who also graduated from South Gate High School, and sister-in-law, Rosie Pitochelli Jackson, and dear friends.  May you rest in peace and freedom of pain and suffering in Heaven