Joan Ledoux

Joan Fernegg Ledoux

1912 - 2015 NEW YORK, N.Y. Joan Fernegg Ledoux of New York, NY, Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY, and East Dorset, VT died at home in New York City, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015, surrounded by loving family and friends. She was 102 years old and the widow of L. Pierre Ledoux. Mrs. Ledoux was born Johanna Maria Fuchs-Fernegg in Vienna, Austria on May 11, 1912 the daughter of Jacques Fuchs-Fernegg and Roszi Hermann. She attended the Schwarzwaldschule and graduated from the Reinhardt Seminar in 1937. Joan studied directly with Max Reinhardt, who founded the Seminar and was the well-known Austrian stage and film director. Following graduation, Mrs. Ledoux was an actress with the Reinhardt troupe until Hitler took over Austria in March of 1938. After the Austrian Anschluss in 1938, Joan was warned one day by a friend, from the Swiss Embassy in Vienna, not to return to her apartment. She left Vienna and made it to Switzerland, then France, and eventually to New York City in the fall of 1939. In New York, Joan studied English and apprenticed with the Broadway director Ronald T. Hammond. She won a leading part with Stony Creek Theater in Branford, CT, performing under the stage name of Joan Fernay. She played the lead character, Nadya, in "The Queen was in the Parlor" by Noel Coward, in the summer of 1940. In addition to having a love of theater, Joan was an avid and accomplished skier. She was a member of the first national Austrian women's ski team, and continued skiing well into her late eighties, supporting the founding of formal skiing in Bromley, VT. Joan met her future husband, L. Pierre Ledoux, in the summer of 1941. They were married April 25, 1942 and had a long and devoted marriage. Following the death of her husband in 2001, Joan took over management of his family's company Ledoux & Co., a metallurgical laboratory. She managed the company as President until her death. Joan was a strong woman, full of wisdom and a good sense of humor. She had a great love of life and enjoyed meeting people from everywhere and anywhere. She was interested in knowing the people she met and discussing their interests and lives, having animated conversations and giving excellent advice. Joan and Pierre were devoted to each other and led exciting lives together. They traveled extensively often to obscure corners of the world. They loved to entertain, their home was always filled with interesting people from all areas of life. Joan Fernegg Ledoux is survived by her cousin, Victoria Bucknall Silsby, Victoria's husband, Samuel S. Silsby, III, and their children Elizabeth N. Silsby, and Samuel S. Silsby, IV of Manchester, VT, and her dear friend, Courtenay L. Daniels. She is predeceased by her husband, L. Pierre Ledoux, her son, Louis Andre Ledoux, and daughter, Jean-Nicole Ledoux A Memorial Service at Cornwall Presbyterian Church, is being planned for the spring. Details and information will be announced later. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Stony Creek Theater, now known as Legacy Theatre: Legacy Theatre, 128 Thimble Island Road, Stony Creek, CT 06405; phone 203-457-0138; or http://www.legacytheatrect.org/#!support/c1ph7 Bromley Outing Club Athlete Scholarship Fund: Bromley Outing Club, P.O. Box 775, Manchester Center, VT 05255; phone 802-824-6498;or http://bromleyoutingclub.org/boc/givingsupport/donations/; Hudson Highlands Nature Museum, PO Box 451, Cornwall, NY 12518; phone 845-534-7781; or http://www.hhnaturemuseum.org Arrangements by JAMES F. LULVES FUNERAL HOME, INC., Cornwall-on-Hudson.