Joan Kirkland Keyser

1931 - 2021

Joan Kirkland Keyser

November 13, 1931 - January 26, 2021

Joan Kirkland Keyser died peacefully at Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, Va., on January 26, 2021. She was 89.

Joan was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1931, to Harold Raymond Kirkland and Helen Schomburg Kirkland. Her father established the H.R. Kirkland Company, Inc. in Morristown, N.J. in 1930.

Joan grew up in Morristown, N.J. She was the eldest of five, including Bruce Kirkland (wife, Cynthia; both deceased), Robert Kirkland (Sharon) of Point Manalapan, Fla., Nancy K. Murray of Revelstoke, BC, and Malcolm Kirkland (Martha) of Warwick, Bermuda.

Joan attended The Peck School and Kent Place School in N.J. and graduated from Spence School in New York City in 1950.

In 1994, at the urging of an old friend, Joan reached out to Campbell Dirck Keyser, with whom she had had a courtship in 1947. They would marry in 1995 and spend many, happy years together in Charlottesville, Va., before Dirck's death in 2011. His three children, Paul Keyser, Richard Keyser and Patrick Keyser, survive him.

Joan was married to Wallace R. Collamore from 1978 until his death in 1993. They lived in Simsbury, Conn., and Manasota Beach, Fla. His two children, Candy Paine (Scott) and Caryn Pagay (Frankie), survive him.

Joan's parents moved to Bermuda in 1950, where she would meet and later marry, Rob Weedon, a schoolteacher, in July 1954. Rob was a native of London, England. Their marriage produced three children.

In 1960, the family moved to St. Mark's School in Southborough, Mass., where Joan devoted herself to raising a family and to serving the community, where her (then) husband, Rob, served on the English faculty. She held an Admissions position at The Southborough School, the private girls' school that evolved into co-education at St. Mark's.

Joan is survived by three children, Alexander "Sandy" Weedon (Elizabeth), Jennifer W. Rittelmeyer (John, deceased), and Christopher Weedon (Lisa); five grandchildren, Alexander (Alec) Weedon of Granada, Spain, Emily Weedon Monteiro (Joseph) of Edgartown, Mass., Helen Andrews (Tim) of Washington, D.C., Christopher Weedon Jr. of Simsbury, Conn., and Martha Rittelmeyer, who predeceases her; and two great-grandchildren, Grayson Alexander Monteiro and Vladimir Hilarion Andrews.

Joan's greatest pride and joy were her three children and their families, and she rarely forgot to acknowledge a birthday or anniversary. She loved to engage in feisty arguments, especially about politics. She undertook a thorough family genealogy that will be appreciated by future generations. She loved sunshine and the beach, especially Coral Beach, Bermuda.

A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, February 17, 2021, at Good Shepherd Anglican Church, 712 W. Main St., Waynesboro, with The Most Reverend Peter D. Robinson officiating. Burial will be private at Monticello Memory Gardens in Charlottesville, Va.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial contributions be made to Good Shepherd Anglican Church, 205 Maple Ave., Waynesboro, VA 22980 (mailing address).

Arrangements have been entrusted to Reynolds Hamrick Funeral Homes of Waynesboro, Va.