Joan Tilton Kenney

1927 - 2013

Joan Tilton Kenney died on Friday December 13, 2013 at St. Francis Hospital, following a brief illness. She was surrounded by her family. Born in Hartford on June 27, 1927, Joan was the daughter of the late Eleanor Gillam Taft and Arthur van Riper Tilton. She attended the Noah Webster Elementary School and Chaffee and Oxford schools, received her BA from Vassar College with a joint degree in English and economics and her MA in English from Trinity College. After graduating from college, she spent a year working in the botany laboratory at Oxford University, UK, and her interest in gardening lasted her lifetime. She taught junior high school in Cheshire, Connecticut for three years. She was for many years the Avon and Canton correspondent for the Hartford Courant and the Farmington Valley Herald and an adjunct faculty member of the English Department at the University of Hartford. After retiring, she completed the Master Gardener program through the University of Connecticut and was a member of the Cherry Brook Garden Club. She was deeply involved as a docent at Wadsworth Atheneum and had great pleasure in leading tours and continuing to learn through the docent orientations. She was recently recognized as "Docent Emeritus" for her twenty years of service. Throughout her life, she was involved with a variety of civic and volunteer organizations: she was a founder of the Canton League of Women Voters, a member of the Canton Democratic Town Committee, and served on the Water Pollution Control Authority. She served on the board of directors of the local and the state PTA and of the Farmington River Watershed Association. She is survived by her five daughters, Elizabeth Tilton Kenney and her former husband William Fisher, Ann Foster Kenney and her husband John Elstad, Rebecca Jarvis Kenney and her husband Lars Travers, Ellen van Riper Kenney and her husband Ala'adeen Shawa, and Catherine Taft Kenney and her husband Michael Vogel, nine grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, as well as her nephew John Garrett Tilton, his wife Alla and their family. She was predeceased by her brother, George Ogilvie Jarvis Tilton. During her final illness, she received exceptional care and support from the Hospice nurses and doctors at St. Francis. Joan's life will be celebrated on Monday December 23 at 11 am at Trinity Episcopal Church, 120 Sigourney Street, Hartford, CT 06105. The burial will be private. Memorial donations may be made to the Roaring Brook Nature Center, 70 Gracey Road, Canton Connecticut, 06019 or the Connecticut Audubon Society, 2325 Burr Street, Fairfield, Connecticut 06824. James T. Pratt Funeral Service of Wethersfield is entrusted with the arrangements. To sign the on-line guest book and share stories about Joan, please go to www.desopo.com.