December 7, 2022, was a good day for Joanne Stevens. Refusing to admit that she was now on hospice care, she ate ice cream, talked with visitors, made a few jokes, and as the day wound to an end, she peacefully and quietly slipped from this world. 

On June 17, 1940, Joanne was born to Maurice and Lilla (Simino) Pitcher of Alstead, NH, the town where she would live the rest of her life. As a Vilas High School student, Joanne was a cheerleader, a clarinet player in the school band, an actor in school plays, a class officer, and an employee at her father’s store, where she once stepped onto a pickle barrel to reach something for a customer and landed waist-deep in pickle brine.

After high school, Joanne worked briefly as a secretary for Peerless Insurance in Keene before leaving to become a wife and a mother. As her family grew, she evolved into a news correspondent for several local newspapers including the Keene Sentinel, Bellows Falls News Review, and Claremont Eagle; a bread baker selling her homemade loaves of “Jo-Dough” in area stores; a thrifty home-keeper canning and freezing and preserving bushels of produce out of the family garden. As her children gained independence, she clerked at the Alstead Village Store, then worked for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Keene, and eventually became a caseworker for the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services in Keene.  

Joanne was a tithing and long-time member of the Third Congregational Church in Alstead where she sang in the church choir, served as an organist and choir director, and sat on numerous church committees, most recently The Guild, which she chaired for a good length of time.

A lover of music, Joanne sang alto with the memorable Yankee Belles and serenaded her children on the piano, pulling them into multipart harmonies as they lolled around the house. She wore jingly charm bracelets, enjoyed playing penny slot machines, believed house-cleaning was for other people, and could nap at a moment’s notice.

She drank tea and diet soda, spent hours on the phone connecting with friends and family, seemingly knew everyone everywhere, and was rarely idle. 

In addition to her parents, Joanne is predeceased by her husband of 64 years, Francis (Sonny) Stevens, and her sister, Andrea Lee Pitcher. She is survived by her four children, Suzanne Stevens of Keene; Heidi Quinn of Framingham, MA; Jeffrey Stevens of Hayes, VA; and Matthew Stevens of Powell, OH; and several beloved grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

While burial at Pine Grove Cemetery in Alstead will be private, all are invited to attend a Celebration of Life for Joanne at the Third Congregational Church in Alstead on Friday, ​December 30 at 1:00 PM. 

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Joanne’s name to the Third Congregational Church, 14 River Street, Alstead, NH, 03602.