Joan Ann Lillie (West) passed into eternity on December 15, surrounded by loved ones in Great Barrington. She was 90.
Joan, known affectionately as Joanie to friends and family, was born in Cummington, Mass., on May 16, 1934, and lived much of her life in the Berkshires. It was there that she raised six children, earned a nursing license, and rarely passed on a good time, be it a night out dancing, a summer excursion to the lake, or family gatherings made sweeter with her desserts and saltier with her quips.
Joanie graduated from Adams High School in 1952 and from Chandler Secretarial School in Boston the following year, and she later drove a bus for the Concord Public Schools before becoming a licensed practical nurse in her 50s, providing home-care services and welcome company to the elderly and disabled.
Joanie loved thick mystery novels, old Westerns, and new music; indeed, on road trips she often disdained the hits of her youth in favor of the latest single dominating pop radio. Unbowed by past struggles and untroubled by whatever the future held, she lived constantly in the moment and made the most of it.
Joanie’s faith was unwavering. She regularly attended services at Hope Church in Lenox, took comfort in scripture, and blithely responded to inquiries about her finances with assurances that “the Lord will provide” or “I’m waiting on the Lord anyway.”
But she did not wait idly. Joanie made frequent trips to visit relatives in Texas, North Carolina, Florida, and elsewhere; vacationed abroad and floated on the Dead Sea with her sister; and once made the Berkshire Eagle when she was rescued in her late 70s during an ill-fated kayaking jaunt along the Housatonic.
Joanie loved a good cocktail and never hesitated to send it back if it lacked a strong enough kick. She loved browsing flea markets—“tag sales,” in her parlance—with her sisters. She relished bingo nights, weekly hair appointments, and any pretext to dress with pizazz; her sequined sweater at one granddaughter’s wedding famously left a trail of glitter hovering in midair each time she got up to hit the dance floor.
Joanie was predeceased by one son, U.S. Army Specialist Michael Lillie, and she is survived by her children, Elizabeth Andersen of Cranston, R.I.; Christopher Lillie of Lee, Mass.; JoAnn Lillie of Matthews, N.C.; John Lillie of Charlotte, N.C.; and Suzanne Marrocco of Springfield, Mass.. She also leaves many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. Joanie is also predeceased by her siblings, Marceline Lanoue, Mary Snyder, Claire Thorne, Richard West, and Edward West.
A visitation is scheduled for Thursday evening, from 5 to 7 p.m., at the Roche Funeral Home at 120 Main Street in Lenox, followed by a funeral service on Friday morning at Hope Church, 259 Kemble Street, beginning at 10 a.m. She will be laid to rest next to her son at Mountain View Cemetery in Lenox, though it is certain her adventuresome, fun-loving spirit will live on.
Among Joanie’s many adages was one delivered as a family cookout wound down: “You go through life, you work really hard, and if you’re lucky, you get a couple vacations. And I’ve had some really great vacations.”
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