WATERTOWN, NY — A Prayer Service for Joan P. Geno, 94, of Bellew Avenue, Watertown, will be held 10 a.m. Friday, June 23, 2023, at Cummings Funeral Service, Inc., Watertown. The family is requiring all attendees to the service to wear masks. A graveside service will be held in St. Stephen’s Cemetery, Croghan, at her family’s convenience.
Joan died on Saturday, June 17, 2023, at Samaritan Medical Center, following a short illness and surrounded by her family.
Arrangements are under the direction of Cummings Funeral Service, Watertown.
Joan was born March 25, 1929, in Utica, daughter of Ernest G. and Catherine Barrington Pierre. She attended Utica Catholic Girls School and then the family moved to the North Country. She was a 1946 graduate of Augustinian Academy, Carthage. Joan then graduated in 1950 as a registered nurse from St. Elizabeth’s College School of Nursing, Utica.
She worked for two years for the Manhattan Eye Infirmary, then for Doctors Kant, Harrington, and Norton, who were Ophthalmologists. She was a communicant of St. Anthony’s Church and a member of the Physician Nurses Association.
Joan married Frank A. Geno on July 29, 1961, at St. Anthony’s Church in Watertown. They built their home on Bellew Avenue, where they would raise their three daughters. After 51 years of marriage, Mr. Geno died on Nov. 13, 2012.
Joan was an avid reader, she would read the Watertown Daily Times, everyday, from cover to cover, keeping up on the happenings in Watertown. She loved to go out to eat at many different restaurants or out for an ice cream cone. She loved her pets. A few days before her passing, her cat Condoleezza also passed away. Her faithful friend of the last seventeen years. Most of all she loved spending time with her family, especially her grandchildren.
She is survived by her three daughters, Jennie Vieths, Norwood, Rosalie (Heinz) Wahl, Clayton, and Joan Geno, Philadelphia, NY; nine grandchildren, Crystal Schneider, Catherine “Katie” (Christopher) Pitcher, Joshua (Pia) Schneider, Rosalie (Alex) Bettam, Mitchell (Maria) Belile, Nicholas (Shanley) Belile, and Toni, Gavin, and Madison Wahl; seven great grandchildren, Tahlia, Braydon, McKenna, Summer, Christopher, Jaxson, and Zoey; and several nieces, nephews, and cousins.
Along with her parents and husband, Joan was predeceased by two brothers, George Barrington Pierre, 1997 and Bradley Zane Pierre, 2009, and one sister Barbara Meister, 2008.
In lieu of flowers donations in her name may be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude’s Place, Memphis, TN 38105.
