Joseph Allen Keaton

Joseph Allen Keaton, (not your “average Joe”), 87 was called home to be with our Lord on June 30th, 2024, after fighting a long and courageous battle with heart disease. 

He was born to Earl and Gertrude Keaton in Scottsdale, Indiana. Joe was the 3rd born of 4 siblings, Marilyn, Richard and Ronald. As very young children they worked tirelessly in the family business cleaning furnaces. Growing up during the great Depression, Joe learned the value of hard work, picked up a local paper route and worked long shifts at the corner Piggly Wiggly. 

His dedication to our country led him to enlist in the US Navy as a Naval Communicator, where he served 4 years on the USS Agerholm. He then joined the Foreign Service, which took him to Hong Kong where he met the love of his life, Sakina. 

The two traveled together across 6 continents, meeting many lifelong friends over the years. During this time, they had 3 daughters, Sonja, Tyla, and Aisha. They settled down in Northern VA where they resided for the next 32 years and operated Simply Country Store and Catering. Along with their business, he contributed selflessly and faithfully to his community including his leadership as an elder at Fairfax Christian Church. 

 He will always be remembered for loving his family fiercely, his humble and kind nature and his loyalty to his friends and colleagues. We take comfort in knowing that he is now reunited with his Lord, and friends and family that have passed before him. He will be forever cracking jokes and playing an eternal game of chess.

Joe is survived by his wife, Sakina Keaton; and his daughters, Sonja K Leslie and husband Leonard G Leslie, Tyla J Bird and Jeffrey S. Bird, and Aisha C. Keaton; Grandchildren, Joshua Bird, Benjamin Bird, Bray Leslie, Olivia Barber, Ava Leslie, Sydney Bird, and Amelia Maher; Many nieces and nephews, and family and friends. 

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association  www.heart.org 

The family will receive friends from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. on Friday, July 5, 2024, at Horne Funeral Home. Funeral services will follow at 2:00 p.m. in the Horne Funeral Home Chapel. Interment will follow at Sunset Cemetery.

The birds are singing extra loud this morning as if to celebrate my father’s homecoming to his eternal dwelling.  It’s a sweet celebratory sound. As if they are singing one of his favorites. “On the old rugged cross….”   The hum of a train is in the distance going further and further away. Just like you dad. You are no longer here… I keep thinking that you are going to wake up and say a joke or two. Boy, you had such a good sense of humor.   You are no longer here, but you will live on in me, and all those that knew you. You have left behind such a beautiful, sweet legacy that lives and breathes as I write. Ready to take on the next adventure…. We are ready, your children and your grandchildren, but is the world ready for them?  I can imagine him saying, “Watch out world, I am sending out my lambs and hear them roar like lions for the Kingdom of God is at hand”.

The Funeral Service will be broadcast live on the Horne Funeral Service Facebook page by clicking the following link: https://www.facebook.com/100045699608413/videos/1420953785964693/