JOANN DELAFIELD

1936 - 2020

DELAFIELD--JoAnn. JoAnn Sawyer Delafield, born May 4, 1936, passed away the morning of July 31, 2020. She succumbed to complications of Alzheimer's after an eight-year battle. Joie was a force of positive personality. She had energy, an easy laugh and enthusiastically included all comers, new or known. Joie was a Southerner who adopted New York and the city, in turn, adopted her. The true test of her commitment was the rarely rewarded burden of being a Mets fan. When not at Shea Stadium she was as often at the ballet at Lincoln Center, walking in Central Park or cross-country skiing down Park Avenue in a blizzard. Joie was born in Atlanta, Georgia. She received a BS in Chemistry from Agnes Scott College where she served as a trustee for 16 years. She worked for The Coca-Cola Export Corporation in Atlanta and New York. She served as director of Graham-Windham Children's Home, School Volunteers of the City of New York, The Churchill School, The China Institute, the YWCA of the City of New York, The Adirondack Museum and the Diller-Quail School of Music. She served as president of the board of The Cosmopolitan Club where she was a member for over 50 years. Joie loved to fly fish with her family in the Adirondacks, Idaho, Wyoming, Alaska, New Zealand, Canada and Europe. She holds the state record for the largest brown trout caught in Montana. She travelled the world with the Women Fly Fishers, an inveterate group of like-minded female anglers. Each summer, Joie's family gathered in St. James on Long Island for the Fourth of July where she would organize fireworks, turtle hunts and tennis tournaments. Through large green eyes, she watched her grandchildren clamming as she had her children building sandcastles. Joie, wife of Dennis Delafield for 59 years, and mother of Caroline and Susan and John Dennis, is also remembered by nine grandchildren - Preston, Margaret, Michael, Lauren, Ian, Cate, Nasir, Jack and Caroline - and three children-in-law - Jimmy, Bill and Cecile. A memorial service will be held post COVID. In lieu of flowers, a remembrance in Joie's name may be made to Row New York at rownewyork.org/donate.