Joan Roe, 1922-2012: Librarian ran finances at firm
10/7/2012Joan Roe, a school librarian and accountant for the business she and her late husband, Mayo, founded, died Sept. 30 in Hospice of Northwest Ohio, Perrysburg Township. She was 90.
She was ill about a week, her daughter Elizabeth said. She attended classes at the Taoist Tai Chi Society during the last decade of her life.
"Everything she did was with a lot of positive forward motion," her daughter said. Her son Mayo said: "She chose to see the best of everything."
In 1977, she and her husband formed Roe Inc. to make material-handling systems. She oversaw the financial side. She was a bibliophile and had been a librarian at Perrysburg Junior High School and the high school. "Mom was a natural organizer," her daughter Deborah said. She cataloged the library of her church, St. Paul's Episcopal in Maumee, and still worked there.
She was born Feb. 16, 1922, in Napanee, Ontario, to Gladys and Cecil Loyst, but grew up in her mother's native England. Her dream was to be a pharmacist, "if there hadn't been a war," daughter Deborah said. She was a secretary in London during the Blitz.
She and her husband, who was in the U.S. Army Air Corps, married April 6, 1946, and she crossed the Atlantic on a ship with other war brides. She became a citizen several years later. "She loved the United States," daughter Elizabeth said.
Formerly of Perrysburg, the couple in the 1980s rehabilitated a historic house on East Harrison Street in Maumee. She lived there until about eight years ago. Mr. Roe died Sept. 15, 2000.
Surviving are her sons, Philip and Mayo Roe; daughters, Elizabeth Pollock and Deborah Carruth; sister, Margaret Burgess; six grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 5-8 p.m. Tuesday in the Maison-Dardenne-Walker Funeral Home, Maumee. A burial service will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Fort Meigs Cemetery, Perrysburg. A memorial services will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday in St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Maumee.
The family suggests tributes to Hospice of Northwest Ohio; the Black Swamp Conservancy, or Perrysburg Area Historic Museum.