Joy Lindy, a civic volunteer who helped secure resident sticker parking in Center City, dies at 94
Mrs. Lindy was proud to have helped bring the Tall Ships to Penns Landing for the Bicentennial celebration, her son said.
Joy C. Lindy, 94, a volunteer who helped secure resident parking in Center City, died Monday, May 10, at The Hearth, an assisted living facility in Bala Cynwyd.
“My mother was aptly named Joy,” Jeffrey Lindy, the youngest of her three children, said. “She loved life, her friends, traveling, partying, Philadelphia. And she loved her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren most of all.”
What friends and family say stood out most were her beauty, vivacity, and spirit.
“She was really the belle of the ball everywhere she went,” her son said. And that was especially true of the biggest ball of all — her own life.
Mrs. Lindy was born in 1926 in Philadelphia, the only child of Max Cohen, a Russian-born doctor, and his wife, Agnes. At 1, she lost hearing in her left ear and at 2, her father died.
After her mother remarried, Mrs. Lindy moved to West Oak Lane. She later graduated from Germantown High School, earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and wed Alan M. Lindy, a young man she met as a child at Hebrew school. They were married shortly after he graduated from the Naval Academy, and the couple moved frequently due to his service commitments. After his discharge from the Navy, the couple returned to Philadelphia.
But tragedy struck in 1970 when Mr. Lindy, a partner in a family construction firm, died suddenly while away on a business trip.
Mrs. Lindy never remarried. But she “continued to live the subsequent 51 years as a glamorous single woman and unapologetic force,” her grandson Isaac Lindy wrote in a Facebook tribute.
She enjoyed traveling the world and had lots of friends and plenty of social events, her family said.
“Joy was a colorful character with a wardrobe to match,” said daughter-in-law Nancy Librett.
Mrs. Lindy’s son said she was “the original social butterfly.”
“She may have even invented FOMO — fear of missing out,” he said.
A strong supporter of Israel, Mrs. Lindy was active in the American Jewish Committee and the Society Hill Civic Association. She helped get resident sticker parking in Center City and bring the Tall Ships to Penn’s Landing during the nation’s Bicentennial.
Mrs. Lindy loved to walk and even in her 80s was known to walk from Washington Square West to Penn for alumni events. She also enjoyed summer trips to Loveladies, Long Beach Island, where she and her husband owned a house.
In addition to her son, grandson, and daughter-in-law, Mrs. Lindy is survived by another son, David; daughter Kimberly; five other grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and other family members.
A service was held Wednesday, May 12.
Contributions in her memory may be made to Planned Parenthood, 1144 Locust St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19107, or the American Jewish Committee, Mail Code: 6760, P.O. Box 7247, Philadelphia, Pa. 19170.