Joan Edmondson Healey Roome, age 85, of Greenwich, CT, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2018, surrounded by her loved ones at the Nathaniel Witherell Nursing Care Center in Greenwich, where she had lived for the past four years. She was born Mary Joan Edmondson on May 28, 1933, in New York, N.Y., the daughter of Josephine Schroeter and Richard Emil Edmondson. She was educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart school on East 91st Street in New York, and went on to earn her bachelor’s degree from Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y. and her master’s degree in pastoral ministry from Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT. She was married to Dr. William Vincent Healey Jr. from 1957 to 1976, and they had three children: William, David, and Hilary. Joan was later married to Reginald Roome Jr. of Greenwich, from 1982 until his death in 2009.
Joan took great pride and pleasure in her family, friends, and the communities in which she had lived and vacationed over the course of her life. She cherished her summers as a child with her family in Prouts Neck, ME. She fondly recalled her time in Morocco in the late 1950s as a newlywed and new mother while her husband served with the U.S. Navy Medical Corps in Kenitra. In Greenwich, she was an active member of the Junior League of Greenwich and volunteered extensively at Greenwich Hospital, as well as working for Maury Hanson in sales at The Nutmegger Magazine, a precursor of Greenwich Magazine. From 1989 to 2006, Joan and Reginald lived in Sarasota, Fla., where she enjoyed her involvement with the Sustainers of the Junior League of Sarasota. A devout Catholic, she took great joy and comfort in her faith and was most proud of her master’s degree and subsequent work in lay ministry for the Dioceses of Bridgeport, CT, and Venice, Fla.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her aforementioned husbands, her son David Huber Healey, and her two brothers, Richard Edmondson and Robert Edmondson. Survivors include her son, Dr. William Vincent Healey III of Seattle, Wash.; her daughter Hilary Healey Watson and son-in-law Joseph Watson of Greenwich; her four grandchildren, Josephine and Jane Watson of Greenwich, and Caroline and Benjamin Healey of Seattle; her daughter-in-law Anna Healey Brune and her family; and her nine nieces and nephews and their families.
A memorial mass in her honor will be held on Jan. 12, 2019 at 11 a.m.at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Greenwich. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be made to the American Macular Degeneration Foundation, P.O. Box 515, Northampton, MA 01061-0515.
