Joan Lutkin Stevens

On September 7, 2014, beloved wife and mother passed away peacefully at her home in Dallas, TX. Joan was born June 11, 1930 in Philadelphia, PA to Florence Jensen Lutkin and Albert Lutkin. Joan attended Haverford High School in Haverford, PA. Upon graduation from high school she was co-producer of a local TV show, “Children’s World” on WFIL-TV, and appeared in the first soap opera produced for television in Philadelphia, The Susan Peters Show. Joan later became a flight attendant for Capital Airlines (now United Airlines) and was based in Dallas and later New Orleans. It was in New Orleans where she met and fell in love with Army 1st Lt. William Forrest Stevens, Base Commander at Camp Villere, Slidell, LA. Joan and Forrest married, April 2, 1955 in Philadelphia, PA and settled in Forrest’s hometown of Richton, MS where he was President of the Stevens’ family timber and lumber business with offices throughout Mississippi and Mobile, AL. Joan became an active member of The Richton Arts Council, and served several years as chairman of the Richton Arts Festival. She was active on the Richton Library Board, partner and founder of Associated Travel Agency in Hattiesburg, MS and Laurel Travel Associates in Laurel, MS. Joan also appeared in the First Edition of Outstanding Young Woman of America. In 1972, Joan and Forrest moved to Laurel, MS where she continued her love of the arts and travel. She was a member of the Laurel Little Theatre, the Laurel Arts League, member of the Gallery Guild of Jackson and past director of the Mississippi Association of Art. Both she and her husband were members of the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Mississippi Museum of Art and the Walter Anderson Museum. In 1972, she and her family began dividing their time between Mississippi and their home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. In 2004, Joan and Forrest retired and settled in Dallas, TX. Joan is survived by her husband, William Forrest Stevens, and twin daughters, Jene Jensen Stevens, Julie Stevens Harrington and her husband Clayton Harrington of Austin, TX and two grandchildren, Kallie Harrington of Austin, TX and Leighton Harrington of Hernando, MS. Joan is also survived by half- brothers James McGarrity of Haverford, PA and John McGarrity of Osceola, PA. A private memorial service will be held at a later date in Mississippi. The family asks, in lieu of flowers, that donations be made to the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, P.O. Box 1108, Laurel, MS 39440, The University of Mississippi Museum, 406 University Avenue, Oxford, MS 38655 or to your favorite animal shelter.