Joan Mary Craig

April 23, 1940 – July 16, 2023

Joan Mary Craig, passed peacefully at home on July 16, 2023 surrounded by her loving family. She was 83 years young, born on April 23, 1940, and was raised in Hoboken, NJ. Joan worked as a bookkeeper at Suzette’s Fashions in Jersey City, NJ, for many decades and then as a highly recommended retailer at Pier One Imports in Hazlet, NJ, receiving all the accolades one could earn. She moved to Tampa, Florida to be closer to her family and to enjoy her retirement.

Beloved daughter of Violet Hartwig Craig and Charles Deering Craig. Devoted mother of Debra Joan Defranco and son-in-law, Thomas, of Tampa, FL and daughter Maria Lynn Gattuso, of Bloomfield, NJ. Devoted Grandmother to Tori Joan and TJ Defranco. Dear sister to Charles “Charlie” Francis Craig, sister-in-law Laura Craig, beloved Aunt to Shannon Craig Evans and James Craig, and many other beloved nieces, nephews and cousins.

The family will be having a private memorial. In lieu of flowers, and in keeping with Joan’s wishes, the family requests donations be made to Hospice in her honor.

Joan had an unquenchable passion for her family and friends and life in general. She was always smiling, always happy, beautiful, spritely, intelligent, hysterical and seemed to never run out of steam. She was always sharing a funny story or memory and had the most incredible recall which lent itself to what would become the legacy she leaves behind and one of her greatest passions, her family ancestry. She painstakingly worked on all sides of her family ancestry and dug through archives and libraries, had correspondences all over the world and using all of her research, tenacity and sheer determination, she tracked her family bloodline back to the Vikings. When it came to movies, history, art, politics, religion, it seemed every topic interested her. Of all of these passions though, her greatest pride and joy will always be her beloved daughters and her grandchildren. Written on the first page of Joan Mary Craig’s Ancestry Book is this quote by Maya Angelou: “And when great souls die, after a period, peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us, they existed. They existed. We can be. Be and be better, for they existed.”