Joanna Jacobus

Joanna Jacobus was born in 1937 at Parsons Hospital of Queens, New York. She was raised mostly on Long Island in Great Neck and especially in Southhold, in a house and place she treasured. When she died, on Saturday, August 10th, she was three days short of her 87th birthday, and she was in Clinton, across the Long Island Sound almost exactly fifteen miles from the childhood home she loved so much.

Joanna was a creative and loving soul. She majored in fashion design at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1960. She married Lee in 1958, while he was in graduate school at Brown University.

While her children, Sharon, 1958-2009, and James, 1962, were old enough to be helpful, she earned a MFA from Connecticut College in dance in 1974 and went on to teach modern dance and ballet at the University of Connecticut and Eastern Connecticut State University. She also designed and taught The Arts in England program in London for the University of Connecticut for twelve Januaries in what was called the Winterim Session.

Once she felt she had reached her limits in dance, Joanna trained to be a licensed massage therapist and ran her own business in Branford for twelve years before she retired. She spent her life loving the arts, music and dance, as well as her family and friends. She was deeply loved in return.

She is survived by her husband, Lee, her son, James, her granddaughter, Fallon Benzenhoefer, her brother Sidney Thomas Bent and her nephews David and Douglas Bent.

A memorial service for Joanna will be held Sunday, September 15, 2024 from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM at Swan Funeral Home, 80 E Main St, Clinton, Connecticut 06413.