Joan Rogers Russell, 70, of Provincetown, passed away unexpectedly on Monday September 3rd at Cape Cod Hospital, with her loving husband and daughters by her side.
Joan grew up in Provincetown’s west end. She attended school locally until she went to Sacred Heart High School in Kingston and the Perry Normal School in Boston, which became part of Curry College. She returned to the Cape and taught elementary school in Harwich. She then returned to her home town where she met her future husband, Robert Russell. Joan and Robert would have been married for 47 years, this coming October.
Joan worked as a parking meter enforcement person (she was ok calling it “meter maid”), and was a police, fire and rescue dispatcher, a job that she excelled at and people said, “no one did it better than Joan”. In the 1980’s she started working as a bookkeeper at the Holiday Inn, now the Harbor Hotel. Joan worked for years at the hotel, and was a stickler for a balanced book, something she was prickly about at home too.
The voice of reason, the giver of sound advice and the glue that held everyone together, she spent lots of time with her grandchildren, watching them regularly after school and hosting sleepovers. Joan sometimes had the vocabulary of a sailor and she would not mince words, but she also was one of the nicest, most loving and quietly caring, humble persons. She had a brilliant sense of humor and was miraculous in her ability to put a smile on one's face, even in the worst situations. Joan never tried to be someone she wasn’t and everyone loved her for that.
She was also very much a woman of faith and volunteered much of her time at Saint Peters Church. She was a catechism teacher, Eucharistic minister and lector. She looked forward to weekly Mass and truly loved her church family.
In addition to her husband Robert, she is survived by daughters Denise Russell and Barbara Peters and her husband Adrian, all of Provincetown. She also leaves behind granddaughter Etta Parks, and grandson Brodie Peters, and her nephew Michael Rogers and his family. Joan was predeceased by her mother Eugenia “Ruth” Rogers and father Francis Rogers of Provincetown, as well as her brother Francis “Frank” Rogers of Truro.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be at 11:00 am on Monday September 10th at St. Peter the Apostle Church, 11 Prince St. Provincetown. Burial will follow at St. Peters Cemetery.
If desired, donations in Joan’s memory may be made to St. Vincent de Paul Society, 11 Prince St, Provincetown, MA 02657 or The Provincetown Rescue Squad, Box 109 Provincetown, MA 02657.