JoAnn Theresa Beckson

April 17, 1949 – August 15, 2025
JoAnn (JoAnna, Jody, Jo, JoAnnie) Theresa Beckson peacefully passed away on Friday, August 15, 2025, surrounded by her loving family. As the last of her immediate family, she joins her parents Joseph Beckson and Edna Williams Beckson, her siblings, Barbara Mertsock, Maureen Harman, and Joseph Beckson, Jr., and her beloved Shih Tzus Jake and Leo. Nieces and nephews who will forever miss her include Pam Mertsock-Wolfe (Chris, Zoe), Micheal Mertsock (Diane), Timothy Mertsock (Shannon, Ashley, Tyler), Michelle Harman McDonald (John, Emerson, Olivia), and Jim Harman (Kelli, Paige, Avery).
Born in Southwest Philadelphia in 1949, JoAnn was the youngest of three girls and the older sister to one brother. A graduate of West Philadelphia Catholic Girls High School and Temple University, her first career was in the classroom as a high school history teacher. The classroom held her only briefly as the theater called to her, and she moved first to Boston then to New York City in the 1970's. She worked extensively as an actress and director both Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway in such theaters as The Ensemble Studio Theater, Intar II, The Working Theater and Woman's Interart. She was also a founding member of New York City's prestigious Circle Repertory Company's LAB. She once told a dear friend that "she was "acting" even in childhood, putting on plays for her family, making her siblings round out her cast or holding them captive as the audience, willingly or not."
Her love of acting was shaped by the acclaimed Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City where she learned the Meisner acting technique that inspired her entire career. While continuing to act, she turned her talents to coaching, directing, and producing. She offered classes, private coaching sessions, and was an Adjunct Professor at New York University's School of Professional Studies, as well as the Graduate Film Department at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She also led workshops at the School of Visual Arts, and the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. "JoAnn championed actors in their careers and celebrated their success and talent as much as she pursued her own career as an actress," shared a former student and friend.
JoAnn loved the theater, but especially comedy, and focused her energy on coaching comics who sought her out, many of whom have become household names. "Say Something Funny", an original dramedy she conceived, directed and co-produced at the Criterion Center-Broadway, was optioned for sitcom development.
JoAnn loved living in New York City, especially in the West Village, and shared her New York and her adventurous spirit with her family during the fifty years of her residence there. In 2020, JoAnn moved to New Jersey to be with her siblings, cherishing the little time they had left together.
She was a tremendous influence on her nieces and nephews, impressing upon them the importance of education, travel, how to set a table, how to put on mascara, how-to and how-not-to dress, and a love of good food and "a nice merlot"!
Her family honors her best by sharing the words of her many devoted friends and students:
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We will all join her one day in the eternal sleep, and we thank you profoundly for your immeasurable support, friendship, and love of our Aunt JoAnn.
As she often wished all of us, we wish you "Love and Light"!
Family celebrated JoAnn in a private gathering. A memorial celebration will be held in NYC this fall. Details to be shared on social media.