Joyce Emery Kinney (Emery)

Eastport – Joyce Emery Kinney, born September 20, 1924, the daughter of Roscoe C. and Vera (Leonard) Emery died October 4, 2016. Mrs. Kinney was predeceased by her husband Grover Bradford Kinney of Eastport and Auburn.

Mrs. Kinney is survived by her brother, Walter Emery and his wife Violet of Sea Girt, NJ; nephew Scott Emery, M.D., and his first wife, Carla Hellekson, M.D., and their children, Olivia and Teal Emery of Seattle, WA.

Joyce Kinney graduated from Shead Memorial High School, class of 1941, W.S. Normal School in Machias, class of 1945, the U. of Maine at Orono, in 1948 where she also received her Master’s in Education in 1955. Mrs. Kinney taught school most of her life: Vanceboro, 1945-47 and Thomaston, CT, 1948-50. In September 1950 Mrs. Kinney began teaching for the American Dependent Schools in Japan; first at Tagajo, then as a traveling teacher for the Island of Shikoku; in 1952 at Eta Jima and in 1953 at the U.S. Navy Dependent School at Yokosuka.

After returning to the States, Mrs. Kinney taught at Lincoln, Kittery and Farmington. She returned to Eastport in 1959 and worked as a secretary in her father’s real estate and insurance business. In 1960 she founded the Border Historical Society; the first meeting was held in Elm Cottage, the family home, and she served many times as president of that organization. In 1969 Mrs. Kinney began teaching grades 1-4 Remedial Reading in Eastport. She developed Pernicious Anemia in 1973 and increasing weakness made early retirement necessary.

One of the original members of the Saint Croix Garden Club, Mrs. Kinney was vice president the first two years of the club’s existence, and the third year served as president.

Mrs. Kinney’s interest in local history led her to research the maritime history of eastern Washington County, and to publish the historical reference “Vessels of Way Down East” in 1989. Over a period of years Mrs. Kinney was guest speaker at the school classrooms, Retired Teachers and at Historical Society meetings. Her brief historical articles have been published in the Down East Coastal Press and the Quoddy Tides.
Mrs. Kinney spent several of her later years researching the maritime history of western Washington County, using old newspaper files of the Eastport Sentinel, The Calais Advertiser and The Machias Union. Her manuscript of this extensive work remains unfinished.

Mrs. Kinney was a member of the Machiasport Historical Society, the V.F.W. Auxiliary and the Eastport Nursing Home Auxiliary.

A funeral service will begin at 3:00 p.m., Friday, October 7th at Blakey Memorial United Methodist Church, High St., Eastport. Burial will follow at Hillside Cemetery, Eastport. Arrangements by Mays Funeral Home, Calais & Eastport.