Joan Lorraine Kineke

Joan Lorraine (Amberg) Kineke, a resident of East Orleans, Massachusetts, died Tuesday, 23 December 2025, not long after celebrating her 96th birthday, at her home overlooking Nauset Beach and the Atlantic.

Born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1929, the daughter of Richard Andrew Amberg and Lorraine Theobald Amberg, Joan grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey, graduating from Columbia High School in 1947. She went on to achieve a bachelor’s degree from Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia, with a major in English in 1951. Following graduation, she married Frank D Kineke, her husband of more than fifty years. Joan had a deep attachment to Sea Girt, New Jersey, where she spent summers at her parents’ home and where Frank once worked as a lifeguard on Sea Girt Beach.

Frank and Joan Kineke began their married life in Naples, Italy, where Frank served on the USS Adirondack and Joan taught school to children of US servicemen. Upon their return to the US, they began their family life while moving in accordance with Frank’s career to, respectively, New Providence, New Jersey; Schenectady, New York; Wallingford, Pennsylvania; Chappaqua, New York; and Barrington, Rhode Island. Along the way, Joan organized each home and a family life that ultimately included six children, providing unbroken loving support to her husband and children with humor and kindness, no matter the challenges life brought the family over the years. The couple retired to East Orleans, Massachusetts, in 1985, to a home that has been in the Kineke family since 1956.

Throughout her life, Joan embraced diverse interests and activities. She worked as a volunteer with the Junior League and later as a parishioner of Saint Joan of Arc Church in Orleans. With a concern for animals and pets, a trait she shared with her daughter Kathryn, Joan became a dedicated volunteer of the Companion Animal Program of Cape Cod. Her leisure interests included tennis (which she played until age 84) and New York Times crossword puzzles. She played piano and appreciated opera and musical theatre. In later years, she especially enjoyed jeep rides with her son Paul to North Beach, in all seasons and weather, as well as quiet moments on Priscilla Beach with her daughter Lisa, granddaughter Erin and great-grandchildren Finn and Maggie.

A devoted mother, Joan enthusiastically supported her children’s pursuits, attending school graduations, sporting events, and performances of all sorts. Together with her husband Frank, she cheered her son Stephen’s Princeton crew races and daughter Lisa’s dance recitals. With an open and resilient spirit, she sailed the waters off Cape Cod with her husband Frank and daughter Gail and explored France with her daughter Jane.

In later years, Joan enjoyed the generous, caring, and steadfast attention of her neighbors on Nauset Heights, among them families with ties of friendship to Joan and her family over generations. Buoyed by these dear neighbors, together with the volunteers from the Orleans community (among others, the drivers), Joan’s optimism and her belief in the goodness of others never wavered.

Joan is survived by five of her six children: Dr Stephen Kineke of Tonawanda, New York, Jane Kineke of Paris, France, Paul Kineke of Katonah, New York, Dr Gail Kineke of Falmouth, Massachusetts, and Kathryn Kineke of Surf City, North Carolina; her grandchildren: Erin Cadieux, Sean Garrison, Emily Kineke, Jay Kineke, Zachary Kineke, Nicholas Kineke and Timothy Kineke, together with eight great-grandchildren; and her sister Mary Ellen Graham of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, together with Graham nieces and nephews. Joan was preceded in death by her husband Frank D Kineke and daughter Elise (Lisa) Joan Kineke.

Joan was a courageous and loving sister, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and aunt, until the day of her death. She enriched the lives of all those close to her, blessed to have her near for so long.

A memorial mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. on Friday 2 January 2026 at St Joan of Arc Church, 61 Canal Road, Orleans, Massachusetts, 02653.

Burial is private at Orleans Cemetery.

Memorial donations may be made to Elder Services of Cape Cod – Meals on Wheels, 68 Route 134, South Dennis, Massachusetts 02660 or to a charity of one’s choice.