Joyce Winston, 93, loved to beat her sons at word games

Somehow, Joyce Winston managed to squeeze two or three lifetimes’ worth of love and achievement into her 93 years.

The former Malvern resident was a teacher at the University of Wisconsin in the 1940s and taught soldiers back from World War II.

She went on to become the letters editor at Ladies’ Home Journal in the 1950s and ’60s and did research interviews with, among others, the actors Ethel Merman and Bette Davis.

And she was a therapist and social worker in Chester County in the 1990s, held anger workshops for teen parents and advocated for HIV-positive prisoners.

At Christmas, said son Tod, Mrs. Winston would send out dozens of cards adorned with her own artwork. And dozens would come to their house in response. She loved to play word games, especially Boggle and Scrabble, and was “proudly disappointed,” Tod said, when she started losing to her sons.

“She and my father raised us to be honest and kind, and to value justice in their footsteps."

She was active at Willistown Friends and volunteered with her husband, Lindley, to don colonial dress and host visitors at the Colonial Plantation at Ridley Creek State Park. She knew the family tree by heart.

Mrs. Winston, 93, died Sunday, April 12, at an assisted living residence in North Jersey due to complications from the coronavirus.

“She was a devoted mother who, with my father, created a loving home for my brothers, Daniel and Jay, and me,” Tod wrote in a tribute on Facebook. “She and my father raised us to be honest and kind, and to value justice in their footsteps.”

Of course, not everything goes smoothly, even for those who seem to have it all figured out. Tod recalled the time that Mrs. Winston, while the family lived on a small farm, was late to an important meeting because she had to chase their pet donkey, José, across a neighbor’s yard while still in her nightgown and slippers.

In her final years, Mrs. Winston lost her sight.

“I’d like to think that in her last moments, in her mind she was walking with her parents down her childhood streets of Washington, D.C., surrounded by all those she loved, and who loved and still love her,” Tod wrote.

Mrs. Winston is survived by her sons and many other relatives. Her husband died in 2005.

A Quaker memorial service is to be held later.

— Gary Miles

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