Joan Winston: Recollections and Tributes

Part of A Companion in Zeor
Recollections, for inclusion, can be e-mailed to Karen MacLEOD
Additional earlier tributes are linked through a table at the bottom of this page.

Please note in your subject line JOAN WINSTON, or something similar, to weed out from the spam this address receives.

I just hear about Joanie's death and am still in shock.  Joanie was the kind of person who one thinks will never die; always so full of life.  Like so many others, I met Joanie at my first Star Trek Committeecon in 1974.  I wanted to get a cast poster signed to hang in the library at my intermediate school in Brooklyn (which it did for over 30 years), but was having trouble getting close enough to some of the actors to get it done.  Enter Joanie.  When she heard what I wanted to do, she plunged right in to help me - and I wouldn't have gotten the autographs without her.  Thus was a friendship born; one that endured despite my move to the West Coast in 1990.  I will remember many things about Joanie:  her generosity of spirit, her courage in the face of adversity (job losses, cancer, and more), her lack of a neatness gene (there was a reason her apartment was known as "the nest"), her wonderful sense of humor (read The Making of the Trek Conventions to see it on full display).  But most of all, I will remember the light her friendship brought into my life.  That light is dimmed, but it will never go out - not as long as I live.  To paraphrase from one of Joanie's favorite movies, Brian's Song: when they think of her, it's not how she died that they remember - but how she lived. How she did live!

Rest in peace, Joanie.  Much love.
Val (Sussman) Ontell

My condolences to Joan's family and friends. I met this funny, caring and determined lady at the first con in NYC in '71. She and a few others boldly went where no fan had gone before. Gae gazint, Joan, through the Guardian and into the Multiverse.

You're not really gone as long as we remember you.

From Steve Meyer, Colorado Springs CO,

"Joanie" made it possible for a nerdy Cajun boy stuck in the swamps of southwest Louisiana to learn of Star Trek fandom, and of the much larger general SF/fantasy fandom connected to it. I owe her most of the wonderful friends I have and experiences I have had over the past 30 years since joining my first club and attending my first convention. I am thankful to God under all Her many names that I did get to meet Joanie at least once and thank her personally.

Please convey to her family and friends how many of us out here owe her an unpayable, eternal debt and know it well, and miss her already.

Sincerely,
Matt G. Leger

Additional Recollections will be linked here NOW POSTED: The main entry page. Additional Recollections from Joel Davis, Amy Harlib and others. Angelique Trouvere. Howard Weinstein, Long-time Star Trek author The original photos page. Additional photos. MEMORIAL TRIBUTES LINKED HERE Anne Pinzow and Jacqueline Lichtenberg. The published obituaries. Nell Kozak. Eulogy read at Joan's Funeral Service by Anne Pinzow