Joanna Hicks

Joanna Pace Muzinich Hicks 76 of Newton died Thursday, December 23, 2021. Born Thursday, June 28th, 1945, she was the daughter of Milan Joseph Muzinich and Helen Pollock Cox Muzinich. Joanna grew up in Kinston, moved to Wilson, and graduated from Ralph L. Fike high school in 1963. She attended East Carolina College.


Joanna is survived by her loving husband of 54 years, Harvey Irven Hicks; children, Hanna Hicks Schoenrock and her husband Jason Schoenrock; Peter-John Galen Hicks and his wife Sarah Shearon Hicks; and seven grandchildren: three adult grandchildren, Katie-Pace Schoenrock, Jacob Schoenrock, and Sam Schoenrock; and four younger grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her mother, Helen Pollock Cox, and her father, Milan Joseph Muzinich.
The love story between Joanna and Harvey (then known as Irven) began at Nags Head beach in the summer of 1966. Harvey was playing drums at the beach in a band called The Tassels, and Joanna was waiting tables and spending her summer college break in the sunshine. Harvey saw her and made it his mission to meet her and ask her for a date. They married in April of 1967, and that was the beginning of a beautiful marriage full of adventure.

In 1969 Joanna became a Christian, and she had a vision. She wanted to introduce Jesus to every person. She bought Christian books and tracts and sold them out of the trunk of her car at house churches and Bible study groups. In 1972, in full hippie mode, she opened a Christian bookstore, Sign of the Fish, across from St. Mary’s College and moved a year later to an old pharmacy with a soda fountain on Hillsborough Street—across from NC State and right beside a strip joint. Some of the first people to get saved as a result of meeting Joanna were the owner of the strip club and the top dancer there. The Sign of the Fish was a ministry that grew into a full-service, 4-store book/Bible/gift/music/church supply business that had a tremendous impact on thousands of people worldwide for more than 40 years.

In the 80s, Joanna was diagnosed with "untreatable" cancer, but she wasn't having it. God had a different story for her; she had a lot more life to live and a lot more beach music to dance to! And live she did. She worked six days a week (and sometimes seven) at the Sign of the Fish. She prayed with and for people daily, she pointed people to just the right book for each individual situation, she made relationships with churches all over the world and helped them with what they needed for their ministries, she hosted Grammy-winning musicians at the Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh, and she attended the Christian Booksellers Association conventions each summer and became somewhat of a celebrity there for her knowledge and expertise as a committed Christian bookseller.

Joanna loved to read, she loved to cook from scratch (especially with butter), she loved traveling with Harvey, she loved the mountains, she loved shopping at thrift stores, and she loved Jesus. A great loss for this earth, Joanna is a great asset to the kingdom of Heaven.

Please join us for a Celebration of Joanna's life at 3:00 pm Friday January 7, 2022 at Christ Baptist Church, 400 Newton Road, Raleigh, NC.

Memorials may be made to House of Hope in Clayton, NC (https://www.houseofhopeofnc.com) or Heartbeats Pregnancy Center in Denver, NC (https://heartbeatspcc.org/).

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Jenkins Funeral Home staff is not involved in the memorial service at the church.

Please sign the online guestbook at www.jenkinsfuneralhome.net. The Hicks family has entrusted arrangements to Jenkins Funeral Home and Cremation Service in Newton 828-464-1555.