Joan Lewis Patterson

Joan Lewis Patterson — who had a distinguished professional career in banking, retail and government, and a long volunteer career as a political activist — died April 1 from complications of Parkinson’s disease. She was 90.

High-minded and big-hearted, Joan was one of the world’s “doers” who got things done. Hard work was hard-wired into her DNA, beginning as a young girl in her father’s corner grocery in the Frankford neighborhood of Philadelphia. As an adult, on top of her budding banking career, she still periodically filled in at the family business, which had become a tavern called The Jolly Post.

A star pupil and 1951 graduate of Frankford High School, Joan competed fiercely in a man’s world, earning the top score among her male peers while pursuing additional banking training. She served as a teller, loan officer and in many other roles in First Pennsylvania Bank branches across the Philadelphia area from the 1950s to 1970s.

Throughout her career, Joan was a leader for fair treatment of all employees, especially women. In her 20s she even was the first female teller — while pregnant, no less — permitted to work on the floor of First Pennsylvania’s prestigious downtown office.

For many years she also moonlighted as a sportswear sales clerk at John Wanamaker, the same department store that hired her maternal grandmother when she emigrated from England in 1896. Joan also worked for Fidelity Bank in Philadelphia and later for Bank of the Islands in Sanibel, Florida, the Lee County Tax Collector’s Office and, briefly, as a restaurateur.

A foot soldier, driver and mentor for decades in local Democratic politics, Joan was schooled in passionate civic advocacy by her parents, longtime Lee County activists William and Olive Lewis, who retired to the area in 1970. Joan guided her children to be conscientious citizens and independent thinkers.

She was a Lee County resident for 45 years. With unvarnished opinions and fire in her belly, Joan debated the issues of the day with political friends and foes alike, in an era where disagreement did not have to be disagreeable. For five years, Joan regularly contributed short opinion pieces to the Lehigh Acres Citizen.

Her political enthusiasm was rivaled only by her generosity. Joan never met a stranger, and her life path is adorned by the numerous kindnesses she offered others.

Personally and politically, her attitude toward other people’s misfortunes was “there, but for the grace of God, go I.” She often told her kids, “You never regret what you do for someone; you always regret what you don’t do.”

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Joan A. Lewis was born Nov. 29, 1933, at Episcopal Hospital in Philadelphia — the first baby delivered in the facility’s new maternity ward.

She was both a beauty and a tough-as-nails tomboy who relentlessly fought for family and principle. By her account, her childhood was a magical time when she and her beloved brother, Billy, could hop on the El and navigate on their own to an A’s or Phils’ game in the summertime, or trot off alone to the movies. She was equally delighted playing paper dolls with her cousin Barbara at the Wildwood shore, or rough-and-tumble football near home with the extended Lewis clan.

Joan was married twice. Her first, brief marriage — to Philadelphia drummer Ronald Bogusch — produced no children. But their courtship did yield a song jointly copyrighted in 1951, titled You Know I Care, for which Joan wrote the lyrics. Her second marriage, to Donald Patterson Sr., lasted about 14 years, producing three sons, then one daughter and a heavy sigh of relief before the couple’s eventual divorce.

A Cub Scout den mother for her boys and softball coach for her girl, Joan was also a tireless advocate for her son Robert, who battled mental illness from his late teens until his death in 2013.

Joan was virtually fearless to the core — and not just in voicing her opinions. Once, in the late 1960s, after stumbling upon a burglary at her home outside Philly, she shooed the children to a neighbor’s house, waited for the perpetrators to exit and then chased their getaway car in pursuit of a license plate number.

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Throughout her life, Joan thirsted for knowledge and adventure. She read voraciously, particularly historical fiction and nonfiction, and never drove past a historical site or marker without stopping.

A festive soul, it could always be said of her that she knew how to keep Christmas well. (Easter, too.) She was crafty and creative, with a keen eye for color.

A fan of stage and screen, she relished live performances by greats in their prime including Frank Sinatra, Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Yul Brynner and Rock Hudson. You could count on her to cry at Camelot, Gone With the Wind and The Way We Were. She loved Big Band music, especially the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

Travel was perhaps her greatest thrill, including two extensive road tours across the Lower 48. Her heart also soared with memories of Waikiki, the coastal towns of Alaska, fall foliage in New England, a Blarney Stone kiss, the tulips of Ottawa, the pink sands of Bermuda, Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia, Rome’s Forum, El Greco’s work in Toledo, and the many World War II monuments to U.S. soldiers in France.

Joan was a dedicated dog mom with a soft spot for cats, too. For years, in addition to her own precious dog, she periodically helped tend her daughter’s ongoing menagerie of canine fosters and foundlings without complaint.

Joan’s survivors include her son Steven (wife May) of Davie, Florida; her daughter, Karen, of Dallas, Texas; and grandchildren Ryan and Brittany of Houston, Michael of Orlando, Florida, and William of Davie; along with numerous cousins, nephews and nieces, their spouses and children, and other cherished family and friends. She was predeceased by her eldest son, Donald; her third son, Robert; her younger brother, William Jr., and sister-in-law Eleanor; her parents; her West Highland terrier, MacMac, who might as well have been a son; and countless others she held dear throughout her life.

In the spirit of Joan’s memory, donations may be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease Research.