Joan Ann Mahoney, 87, of Alexandria, Va.
ALEXANDRIA, VA. >> At age 87, with failing vision, Joan Mahoney still glided her frail fingers across the piano keys and added music to every family gathering. It was always her gift.
Joan’s gift of music started early. Born during the Great Depression year of 1932, on May 20, to Rose Glennon and Elmer van Hoesen, she was their first-born of two daughters, with her sister Jean arriving in 1939 to make sure Joan never had a quiet moment.
Joan Ann’s musical education continued at the Academy of St. Ursula in Kingston with Sister Mary Antoine, and when unable to attend the Boston Conservatory of Music due to family finances, she chose the field of nursing and graduated as a Registered Nurse from the Benedictine School of Nursing.
While attending the Benedictine School, she met and married the man of her dreams, William “Wing” Mahoney, and their young courtship grew around the special spots of Kingston — Forsyth Park, Kingston Point, the fashionable Chez Emile pub. Joan Ann and Wing were married on Oct. 9, 1954, and welcomed six children from 1955 through 1963 — Tim, Dan, Mary, Kathleen, Bill, and Michael.
Unparalleled in her organizational skills as a mom and homemaker, Joan continued to work as a nurse at the Benedictine Hospital, Gateway Industries and New York State Department of Developmental Disability Services. She was a young grandmother and cherished time with her 22 grandchildren, rotating two at a time for a unique “Grammy’s Weekend.” She was grandmother to Kellen, Cailan, Shea, Sara, Liam, Brian, Jon, Megan, Rose, Kieran, Jessie, Danielle, Kaela, Carrie, Julianne, Eilise, Emily, Mary-Kate, Nell, Erin, Will, and Nathan, and great-grandchildren Beckett, Sean, Lincoln, Aidan, Conor, and Henry.
Joan enjoyed active participation in the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians Division No. 5, Mid-Hudson Women’s Chorus, St. Mary’s Parish Council, and later, when relocated to Alexandria, Va., as a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution – John Alexander Chapter, Alexandria, Va., and a member of Our Lady Queen of Peace in Arlington, Va.
Joan’s song ended with her local family surrounding her, on Thursday, June 27, in Alexandria, Va.
Funeral arrangements are under the guidance of Joseph V. Leahy Funeral Home Inc., 27 Smith Ave., Kingston, N.Y. Friends will be received at the funeral home Tuesday from 4 to 7 p.m. A procession will form Wednesday at the funeral home at 10 a.m. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Mary’s Church at 11 a.m. Burial will follow in St. Peter’s Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please consider contributions to the Pancreatic Cancer Foundation, www.pancan.org, and the Lupus Foundation, www. lupus.org.