Joan E Smyth

Joan E. Smyth, age 86, of the Silver Ridge Westerly community of Berkeley Township (Toms River) died on Thursday, November 5, 2015 at Community Medical Center, Toms River. Born in Manhattan, she grew up in Queens (right on the beach in Far Rockaway before moving to Jackson Heights) and, once married, lived in Manhattan's Inwood neighborhood as well as in the Bergen County, New Jersey town of River Edge. In 1983, she relocated to Silver Ridge Westerly with her beloved husband, Joseph.

A graduate of the Sisters of St. Dominic-founded Saint Agnes Academic School, Flushing, New York, Ms. Smyth worked as an executive secretary with a large, Manhattan-based advertising agency before marrying Navy veteran and New York City firefighter, Joseph Smyth, and becoming a homemaker.

Her niece, Maura, said "Aunt Joanie had a quick wit, was a voracious reader, was keenly observant and had an interesting perspective which she expressed colorfully." In talking of her days at the ad agency, her niece Ellen in Hong Kong remembers her saying "I had that place running pretty much the way I wanted it by the time I left." She had a great sense of humor.

Joan is predeceased by her loving husband, Joseph in 1988. She is survived by her sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Anne and Henry Hilburn of Maryland; a cousin, Linda Geschwandtner of Texas; and many nieces and nephews including Ellen McGill of Hong Kong (formerly of New York), Margaret Pomianek and Joseph DeAngelis of New Jersey, Maura Hilburn of Maryland, Brian Hilburn of New Jersey, Ellen Hilburn of Washington, D.C. and Kathleen Hilburn of Maryland and New Jersey, and Daniel Hilburn of Massachusetts. Additionally, the family is forever indebted to Jeannie Marchello for years of loving care and assistance and to Ino Tegetashvili, for the comfort she provided in Joan's final months.

A Catholic memorial gathering and service will be held from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. on Friday, November 27, 2015 at Horizon Funeral and Cremation Services, 1329 Route 37 West, Toms River. Interment of cremains will follow at the Brig. Gen WC Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery at 1 p.m.