Joan Zawoiski Lewis

Joan Zawoiski Lewis, a children's storyteller whose battle with pancreatic cancer sparked good deeds on all seven continents, died Saturday, May 7, 2011, at her daughter Jocelyn's home in Charlottesville, Va.

Born in Pringle, Joan was a proud graduate of St. Hedwig's Elementary School.

She cheered at Pringle High and graduated from Larksville High School at 16. A great reader, Joan was known as "Kid Dictionary." She graduated from Wilkes College with a degree in education and taught at schools in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut, including St. John the Evangelist School in Pittston.

She and her husband, Attorney Michael J. Lewis Jr., raised their family on Park Place, Kingston.

She was deeply engaged in politics and the community, including the League of Women Voters, the Democratic Womens' Committee, the PTA, the Park Place Association, Lawyer's Wives, and Literacy Volunteers.

In 1980 Joan moved to Connecticut and began a career as a children's storyteller. She was renowned for her children's story hours, especially her babies programs with their emphasis on educating new mothers. Joan firmly believed that mothers should speak to their children as though they were adults, and read to them from birth.

Joan worked at both the Wallingford and Meriden Libraries. Upon her retirement, she moved to Charlottesville, Va., in 2008 to care for her newborn grandson, Owen Michael Paulson.

Joan was diagnosed with end-stage pancreatic cancer in September 2009 and was expected to die within weeks. Instead, she survived 20 months and sparked good deeds across the world.

When she became ill Joan asked that, rather than a fuss be made about her, folk perform "good deeds" in her honor and then tell her about them. Good deeds in honor of "Joannie from Pringle" have been documented in all 50 states and on all seven continents, including on Antarctica by the family of famous mountaineer Sir Edmund Hilary.

Joan crossed many items off her "bucket list" and lived to add new ones, including a ride in a hot air balloon, a trip to New York City to stay at her beloved Waldorf Hotel and visit the set of the television show "The View," and watching her grandson, Leo Coltrane Kivell, row at St. Joseph's Prep. Most famously, this past March she traveled to Philadelphia to watch the UConn women's basketball team play in the NCAA tournament. When the team heard of this last wish, they invited her to a private team practice. After they beat Duke, coach Geno Auriemma credited their win to Joan's pep talk to the team. There was extensive news coverage of this final trip, and she has been the topic of inspirational speeches and Sunday sermons in churches from Bedford, N.Y., to Gladwyne.

Joan maintained a lifelong interest in literacy, sports and world events until her death. She was commenting actively on the political situation in Afghanistan three days before her death.

Joan was an extraordinarily generous person with a deep love of family and a prodigious gift for friendship. She was den mother to her own and her children's extended network of friends, her home being "party central" for dinner parties and annual costume parties in Kingston, Connecticut and Philadelphia.

Joan was an exceptionally hardy spirit who did not let adversity get her down. When her leg was shattered in an accident shortly before her 60th birthday, she told dubious doctors she would dance the polka at her party — and she did. She showed the same undaunted spirit after becoming ill with cancer two years ago. She provided child care for her youngest two grandchildren but also making sure to fulfill as many lifelong dreams as possible, including the chance to meet her favorite team — the UConn women's basketball team — and watch them practice.

Her facility for friendship lasted until the end and is reflected in her website on Caring Bridge that kept friends and family connected during her brave, but characteristically upbeat battle with cancer. The site, www.Caringbridge.org/visit/joanniefrompringle, has received more than 25,000 hits or visits.

She spent her last year helping to care for her youngest grandchildren. The youngest, Amy Elizabeth, was born five months after Joan became ill. Joan was determined to survive until the baby was born; and lived long enough to teach her to walk.

She is survived by a large and loving family — her five children and their spouses, six grandchildren, her sister, an extended family of nieces, nephews and cousins, as well as many devoted friends. Joan is survived by her five children, Dr. Michael J. Lewis (Susan Glassman), Judy Lewis (Tim Cheney), Jacqueline Lewis, Esq. (Sheldon Kivell), Jane Lewis Lamb, Esq. (Peter Lamb), and Jocelyn Lewis (Dr. Scott Paulson); six grandchildren, Kate, Colin and Nora Cheney, Leo Coltrane Kivell, and Owen and Amy Paulson; her sister, Dolores Kosisher; and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

She was predeceased by her parents, John and Eva Zawoiski; her sister, Evelyn Chukinas; and her brother, John (Jack) Zawoiski.

She will be greatly missed by all.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday in St. Ignatius Church, 399 Maple Ave., Kingston. Friends may call Tuesday, May 10, from 5 to 8 p.m. at A.J. Kopicki Funeral Home, Zerbey Avenue, Kingston. Interment will be in St. Hedwig's Cemetery, Larksville.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Joan Z. Lewis Fund, Wallingford Public Library, 200 N. Main St., Wallingford, CT; or anywhere else it might do some good. Good deeds may also be posted on the Caring Bridge website.