Joanne M Lewis

Joanne Marcia Lewis (née Waxman), beloved wife of Robert (dec.); sister of Lois (Russell) and Gayle (Michael dec.); mother of Brian (Camille), Paul (Bonnie), David (George), Pavia, and Clea (Peter); grandmother of Zachary (Carolyn), Jordan, Léa, Lewis (Elisabeth), Anzi, Delphine, Sasha, Stanley, and Alvin; great-grandmother of Vivian and Julian; and honorary fairy godmother to anyone with whom she struck up a conversation, passed away on February 18, 2024.

Joanne was born in Cleveland on June 5, 1933. She attended Cleveland Heights High School, where she was followed by seven of her children and grandchildren and earned induction into the Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame. While studying English and art history at the University of Michigan, she spent a year abroad in postwar Europe — the first of the many audacious adventures from which her famed travel stories originated.

In 1963, semi-retired from globetrotting, Joanne married Robert Lewis and returned to Cleveland. An eminent local writer, her best-known authored work was To Market, To Market, on the history, architecture, and people of the West Side Market. Her gifts as both an engrossing storyteller and an eager listener made her a natural historian. “The truths,” she always said, “are more important than the facts.”

A lifelong antiwar and civil rights activist, Joanne founded the Global Issues Resource Center, a nonprofit based out of Cuyahoga Community College, where her husband Robert was the founding Chairman of the Board. Formed against the backdrop of the Cold War, the organization’s goal was to empower ordinary people through education, under the slogan: “We don’t have to share beliefs, just a planet.”

Joanne was a devoted patron of the arts, serving on the boards of organizations like the Near West Theater and the Museum of Contemporary Art and supporting myriad others with her advice and attendance. She was a loyal friend whose advocacy and whimsy inspired everyone in her orbit. She was a free spirit, an exotic cook, and a poetic soul: the kind of person for whom you run out of adjectives. Most of all, she was a magical matriarch who dispensed sage wisdom and never missed a chance to effuse about her family.

A celebration of Joanne’s life is being planned for the coming months, where it is only fitting that a woman known for her gifts of words — both figuratively and literally — will be honored through her stories.

In lieu of flowers, the Lewis family asks that you consider a donation in her name to an arts or advocacy organization that makes you think of Joanne, whose mantra was that “You CAN make a difference in the way the world turns.”