Joan Catherine Turcotte Higgins

Joan Catherine Turcotte Higgins Joan Catherine Turcotte Higgins was born on October 17, 1924 in Yonkers, New York. She died on February 8, 2008 at the Westminster Manor Health Care Center in Austin, Texas. Mrs. Higgins was 83 years old. Mrs. Higgins was the second of four children born to Cecelia and Joseph Turcotte. Her father died when she was six years old and her childhood was shaped by an extended family that included her mother, sister, brothers, grandparents, aunts, and uncles at 1077 Warburton Avenue, Yonkers, New York. She graduated from Gorton High School in 1942 and went on to New York University on a Regents Scholarship. She was elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa and graduated with a degree in mathematics in 1946. Mrs. Higgins married her high school sweetheart, James Francis Higgins, on June 1, 1947. They were married for 47 years until Mr. Higgins died in 1994. Together they raised six children in Livingston, New Jersey where they lived for nearly thirty years. Her family belonged to St. Philomena's Catholic Church. Mrs. Higgins served on the faculty of Livingston High School as a mathematics teacher. Following retirement Mrs. Higgins lived in Boynton Beach, Florida and Cape May, New Jersey, where she was a member of Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church. Mrs. Higgins loved to read and was an expert at knitting, crochet, and needlework. She enjoyed trips to Europe, Central America, the Caribbean, India and many parts of the United States. She especially enjoyed her 12 grandchildren. Mrs. Higgins leaves for her children and grandchildren the example of her faith in God, her beliefs in education and civic participation and her values of loyalty, integrity, and personal responsibility. Mrs. Higgins is survived by her six children and their families: son James and Cindy of Marblehead, Massachusetts and their children Caitlin, Taryn, Whitney, and Molly; son Robert and Janet of Bethesda, Maryland and their children Carol Lynn, Catherine, and James; son Brian and Debbie of Basking Ridge, New Jersey and Russell; son Michael of Atlanta, Georgia; daughter Sheila and Ira of Austin, Texas and Daniel, and daughter Kathleen and Daniel of Davis, California and their children Helen, Isaac, and Leo. She is also survived by her sister Mary Turcotte Kelly and her husband Robert of Columbia, South Carolina, and her brother Joseph A. Turcotte, of Chatham, New Jersey. Mrs. Higgins was preceded in death by her parents Cecelia and Joseph Turcotte, her brother Thomas Turcotte, and her husband James. The family is very grateful for the kind and compassionate care Mrs. Higgins received at the Westminster Manor Health Care Center in the final two years of her life. We deeply appreciate the additional care and comfort provided by Hospice Austin in the final month. Special thanks to the St. Austin's Catholic Church Outreach Ministry. The family will receive friends from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 with funeral services following at 2:00 p.m. in the Weed-Corley-Fish Chapel. Obituary and guestbook online at wcfish.com