Joan Lineen Donohue died Monday, June 23. She was 90 years old, and left this world surrounded by her adoring family, including her three children and their spouses, and eight grandchildren.
Since last week, an old, browning newspaper article has been making the rounds around the family featuring a beautiful picture of Joan when she ran for the Mount Kisco Village Board in 1997. The headline reads: "Joan Donohue Tells It Like It Is" and never was a headline more on target: Joan Donohue told it like it was for every bit of her nearly 91 years. But there is more—a lot more—to say about her.
Joan was born in the Cradle of Civilization—the Bronx, New York—on July 27, 1934, to Michael Lineen and Mary Burke, both of County Clare, Ireland. The second of five children, Joan was raised in Parkchester, where her father owned a bar and her mother was a cook at St. Joseph's School for the Deaf. Joan loved life in the Bronx. Big family dinners, cousins living nearby, long afternoons at Castle Hill Beach Club, and egg creams at the candy store. She played basketball where her long arms and fingers disrupted opponents' passing lanes, and she joined the Girl Scouts where she attained a singular notoriety, becoming the organization's national poster girl in 1947. Joan attended St. Helena's Elementary and then Preston High when, in 1952, lightning struck.
She met him at a pizza place, this tall Irish boy from Throggs Neck and Regis High School. She wouldn't give him her number, so he sent his sister, a freshman at Preston, to get it the next day. They went to the Preston dance and that was it. She would later write, "He was the kind of guy I always wanted to meet: tall, with dark hair and quite handsome with a wide engaging smile and a very easy way of making conversation." He was smitten, too. They were both just 17 but were rarely apart from that moment on.
Joan Lineen married John Donohue in May of 1958, and their adventures began. They moved to Jacksonville, Florida where he was in the Navy, and Joan easily made new friends. They came home a couple of years later and eventually started a family—Roger, Brenda, and Jean Marie. Meanwhile John became a lawyer and Joan became so many things: PTA member, Cub Scout Den Mother, volunteer at St. Helena's school and parish. Then, another big move. In 1979 they left "the Cradle" for Mount Kisco, where John had taken a job. And that's where they made their forever home.
In Mount Kisco, Joan's commitment to the community grew by leaps and bounds and knew few equals. She was chairperson of the St. Patrick's School Parent Association, chairperson of the YWCA Middies Parents' Swim Association, chairperson of the Leonard Park Committee, and member of the Mount Kisco Historical Society, the Ladies Auxiliary of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and other committees dedicated to the betterment of Mount Kisco. Then in 1993 she ran for Village Board by "telling it like it is," and won two terms. Joan was recognized for all this service to her community by being awarded a 2016 New York State Women of Distinction Award, given annually to women who have made significant impacts in Westchester County and across New York State. Oh, and in her spare time she had a full-time job for 20 years as a staffing coordinator at Sarah Neuman Nursing Home in Mamaroneck.
But there was more to Joan than work and community service. A better mom and wife would be hard to find. A better friend there never was. And a better grandmother—impossible. To Nicola, Tim, Tara, Owen, Kate, Sean, Brendan and Evan, "Grammy" was the best—pulling up in the driveway with surprise Carvel sundaes, banging pots on the porch on New Year's Eve, being at every baseball game, swim meet, school concert, and graduation she could, and being the funniest person they ever met (that's an actual quote!). She had deep and lasting relationships across her lifetime with hundreds of people, she never forgot a name or a birthday, she never failed to show up for EVERYONE—in times of joy or sorrow—and she never went to bed or woke up without a smile on her face, a kind thought in her mind, and love in her heart.
The world is surely a sadder place without Joan Donohue in it. Her children and grandchildren will miss her always, as will her sons-in-law Paul and Michael and her daughter-in-law Alyson, her brother Edward, sisters-in-law Ellen, Sue, and Mary, her brother-in-law Sonny, and her scores of nieces and nephews, cousins and friends. But we take solace that she is reunited with her parents, and with her siblings, Michael, John and Claire. And especially with her husband John, who predeceased her only by months, and was no doubt there to welcome into God's Kingdom his lovely bride, a beautiful and wonderful example to us all of how one should live.
Joan's family would like to thank her caregivers, Katie, Bridie, Andrea, and most especially, Maggie McGrath for the kindness and care they showed her in these last few months.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Preston High School at prestonhs.org/support/ways-to-give.cfm
Family and friends are invited to Cassidy-Flynn Funeral Directors on Friday, June 27, 2025, from 3 to 7 p.m. for visitation. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated for Joan on Saturday, June 28, 2025, at 10 a.m. at St. Francis of Assisi Church. Interment Private.
