Joanna Smith Virden

Joanna Smith Virden, of Bloomfield, Connecticut, formerly of Yarmouth Port, Wellesley, and Needham, Massachusetts, Edina, Minnesota, McLean, Virginia, and Fayetteville, New York, died of complications from COPD and Covid on November 21, 2023, after 92 years of a beautifully loving and fulfilling life. Joanna was born on February 14, 1931, to Thomas Wallace and Emily Christensen Smith. She was predeceased by her husband of thirty years, Prospère (Pros) Shelton Virden, Jr., and her brother, Thomas W. Smith II.

Joanna was born in Stoneham, Massachusetts, and raised in Fayetteville, New York. She was an active young woman who was a downhill skier, skater, and swimmer. She also was an accomplished piano player and dabbled in painting. Her first job was as a lifeguard at Green Lakes State Park in Fayetteville. Always a planner, her goal of going to college in Boston was fulfilled upon graduating from Wheelock College with a degree in Education. She taught kindergarten in Boston before meeting her husband Pros, from Syracuse, New York. They soon married in Fayetteville and began growing their family to three children. During this time the family learned to ski at Cazenovia Ski Club, spent many weekends hiking and fishing in the Adirondacks, and explored the Maine coast with Joanna’s parents in Wiscasset.

The family of five then moved to Needham where Joanna became involved in many volunteer causes including the Junior League and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. After eight years in Needham, the Virden family moved to Edina, Minnesota where she continued her volunteerism with the Junior League and added LeagueAires, a women’s chorus, performing for the elderly and needy in the Minneapolis area. After Minneapolis, Joanna and Pros moved to Virginia to allow Pros to work in the Washington D.C. area. After Pros’s untimely death in 1985, Joanna moved back to New England and eventually to Cape Cod where she built a new life and loved entertaining her children and grandchildren with beach fun, lobster dinners, bike riding, and visits to the Cape Cod Natural History Museum. She took up golf and loved her new social life in Kings Way, shared with her best friend Judy Melick. Joanna continued her volunteerism at the Cape Cod Museum of Art.

After her first big trip to Europe after college, Joanna resumed her travel, most often to visit her children and grandchildren in California, Michigan, Kansas, New York, France, and England. Traveling with Judy, she pursued extraordinary adventures including white water rafting in Utah; heli-hiking in British Colombia; trekking the Swissp Alps; and a trip to Norway to visit Norwegian cousins and her ancestral home in Trondheim.

Joanna is survived by her three children and seven grandchildren: Prospère Shelton (Shel) Virden, III and Carol Lynn Virden of Pacific Grove, California, (Ross and Chase Ford); Thomas (Tom) William Virden and Lois Shannon of Boulder, Colorado, and Mougins France, (Andrew, William, and Ella); and Dianna (Didi) Virden of Portland, Maine, (Timothy and George). Joanna is also survived by her sister-in-law, Ellen Virden White, her niece Cindy Smith, and many Virden and Smith nieces, nephews, and cousins.

A celebration of her life will be held at a date to be announced by the family. Condolences can be shared online at the Cremation Society of New England, Wallingford, Connecticut. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MFA Fund, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, www.mfa.org/give.

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