McClurg, JoAnne W.

A resident of the Hartford area for 50-plus years, JoAnne W. McClurg died at home at Avery Heights on January 17 from end-stage COPD after a long hospitalization. She was 86 years old and had lived at The Heights during the last six years, participating in several committees and the community's knitting circle.

JoAnne attended the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, moving to the Midwest on her own in the late 1950s to receive her two degrees. She wrote her undergraduate thesis on American painting and received her B.A. in Liberal Arts & Sciences in 1958. She earned an M.A. in Art History in 1961, retaining a lifelong interest in art.

In her later years, JoAnne ventured to Europe to soak in some of the famous works of art housed in the great museums there, admiring the buildings and art that were sacred to her. Her very last trip was to the Art Institute of Chicago, a favorite museum of hers. A woman of great intelligence with a mane of striking, silver hair, she had beautiful handwriting, kept a meticulous calendar, and had a flair for fine jewelry and clothes.

Settling in Old Wethersfield in 1968 with her two young children and her husband, Chris, whom she met at graduate school, JoAnne was a self-described “domestic engineer.” She and Chris raised their son and daughter in the Wethersfield public school system, with the family enjoying many high school sporting events, including Jarrett's soccer games and Sarah's field hockey matches. Many raucous Wethersfield High ice hockey games were also attended. JoAnne later became a huge NFL fan, like her son, and was a superfan of Aaron Rogers.

Born February 24, 1934, in Buffalo, NY, JoAnne Louise Weaver was raised by hardworking parents who crossed over the Peace Bridge to Buffalo from nearby Canada. They owned a small business delivering ice and coal during the Depression; later her father earned a GED to become a NY state meat inspector. When she was a child, her family returned most every Sunday to visit relatives in Canada, with JoAnne remembering her grandfather's farm and impressive work horse. She spent summers there on the shores of Lake Erie during the polio epidemic. While taking college classes at home at the University of Buffalo, she worked at Roswell Park hospital and when younger made popcorn at a local movie theatre.

JoAnne and Chris's community was anchored in the Unitarian Society of Hartford, where they were members for decades, attending Sunday services and many events. The Society's rich intellectual and political discourse was a sustaining force in their lives. A celebration of JoAnne's life will be held at the Meeting House in June of 2022.

JoAnne is survived by her sister, Suzanne Luksch, of Cheektowaga, NY, and her family, Dave, Sheryl and Christopher Luksch; her son, Jarrett McClurg of Marlborough, CT, along with his wife, Kim, and their two children, Maggie, 22, and Jack, 20; and her daughter, Sarah Grolnic-McClurg, of Berkeley, CA, along with her husband, Steven, and their son, Isaac, 15.

In memory of JoAnne, charitable donations can be made to either the University of Illinois Foundation at http:// giving.illinois.edu or by mail to the foundation in support of the Urbana-Champaign campus at P.O. Box 734500, Chicago, IL 60673-4500 or the Unitarian Society of Hartford, 50 Bloomfield Avenue, Hartford, CT, 06105.