Joan Agnes Tomolonis

BOURNE, Mass. — Joan A. (Urmonas) Tomolonis, retired banking manager and mother of five, died quietly in her Buzzards Bay home on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2022. She was 97.

Joan was the daughter of Leonas and Magdalena (Vaitkevicius) Urmonas, Lithuanian immigrants who settled in Worcester during the early 1900s. She was the widow of Martin Tomolonis, who died in 2006, and she was predeceased by her two sisters, Mildred Flynn of Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Donna Sullivan of Worcester.

For many years, she was a homemaker who loved cooking, knitting, sewing and planting fruit trees, shrubs, vegetables and flowers in her well-kept yard.

In 1964, after her youngest children were all in school, she was hired as a teller at the newly opened Sandwich Cooperative Bank in Buzzards Bay. While employed at the bank, she took numerous business-related courses in accounting, public speaking, law, real estate, finances and management. She attained her Realtor’s license and was promoted to branch manager for the Buzzards Bay office and assistant vice president of Sandwich Cooperative Bank.

After retiring, she became an active volunteer with the Bourne Senior Center, often helping town residents manage their finances and prepare their taxes. She was also a longtime parishioner at St. Margaret’s Catholic Church in Buzzards Bay, where she was active in the church’s guild.

Joan attended St. Casimir’s Parochial school in Worcester during her elementary years, then continued her education in the city’s public schools, graduating from Classical High School in Worcester. She attended Worcester School of Business Science in 1942 and 1943.

She was athletic in her school years, playing basketball and other sports, and she remained active in sports through her adulthood. She was a volunteer softball league coach in Bourne while her daughters played the sport, and she was a coaching assistant with the Cape Cod Swim Club during its early years.

She loved Cape Cod, and she often took daylong family beach trips during weekends in the summer — especially to Old Silver Beach in Falmouth and Craigville Beach in Barnstable. She also loved hosting summertime clambakes and lobster boils for extended family and friends at her home.

She is survived by three daughters and two sons: Cynthia A. (Tomolonis) Flowers and her husband, Kenneth, of Belle Plaine, Minn.; Christina (Tomolonis) Mancini and her husband, Peter, of Brattleboro, Vt.; Margaret (Tomolonis) Lumb of Wareham, Mass.; Louis M. Tomolonis and his wife, Patricia (Wood) Tomolonis of Brooksville, Fla.; and Andrew Tomolonis and his wife, Valerie A. (Castle) Tomolonis of Bellingham, Mass.

She also leaves many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, along with numerous nieces and nephews.

After being cremated, her ashes will be interred at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, alongside those of her husband, a former U.S. Marine and veteran of World War II. Family and friends are planning a private gathering at a later date to celebrate her life.