Joan Douglas Clemons died on September 9 after a brief illness. She was 88.

 

Joan was driven to tell stories and was passionate about doing so through writing. Her work included published short stories, journals and completed manuscripts.

 

She was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1932 to Estelle Fisher and Sidney Douglas Longbottom. A graduate of Smith College, she moved to New York City and began her professional life at Time Magazine, followed by McCall’s. She met her husband, Maynard G. Clemons, in the city and they were married in 1962. They left Greenwich Village for Sausalito, California and later Portland, Oregon, before returning to the East Coast.

 

Joan had an unending love of coastlines and oceans and divided the last twenty years of her life between Belfast, Maine and another home in Parkers Cove, Nova Scotia.  She was a passionate, prolific writer whose work included published short stories and several book manuscripts. She was a writing mentor and founded writer’s groups wherever she lived. Joan co-hosted the popular show, The Writer’s Forum at WERU radio, in Maine. 

 

Joan cared profoundly about the state of the world, and worked diligently for change in her communities, particularly in the areas of politics and the environment. She was an active member and later president of the League of Women Voters in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and with others birthed the Ridgefield Environmental Action Program (REAP) in 1971, leading to the region’s first Recycling Center.

 

She served on the Conservation Commissions of Ridgefield and later of Lee, Massachusetts. She was a founding member of the Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition in Belfast, Maine which promoted conservation initiatives in the four-river watershed area.

 

She is survived by her two cherished brothers, John D. Longbottom and Eric D. Longbottom as well as her daughter Amy Clemons; son Gardner Clemons and his wife Kandis; her granddaughters and a beloved crew of nieces, nephews and grandnieces and nephews.

 

Joan was also a dedicated parishioner and a volunteer at the Greater Bay Area Ministerium Food Cupboard in Belfast. Her heart and spirit remain in Parkers Cove at the window of a house that is no longer, looking out over the Bay Of Fundy. 

 

Donations in her memory may be made to St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Belfast.