Joan Kramer Quinn, artist, art historian and librarian passed away two days short of her 94th birthday on January 13th 2021 of natural causes. After graduating from Forest Hills High School, she married Edward v. O’Brien and had three children, Joan S., Therese and Michael O'Brien. Widowed at the age of 33, she went back to work at the New York Life Insurance company where she met her second husband George Quinn to whom she was married for 35 years until his death in 2001. Her second marriage expanded her family to include two stepdaughters Margaret and Virginia Quinn. In the 1970’s she returned to school and received a Summa Cum Laude B. A. degree and later an M. A. a degree in art history from Queen’s College.

At the same time, she took a number of art classes at various institutions and later became a founding member of “Studio Twelve”, an artist's cooperative workshop in Queen’s New York under the mentorship of the renowned international artist, Vytatus Jonynus, the stained – glass artist for the “Pieta” at the 1964 World's Fair. After 10 years Mr. Jonynus decided to return to his native Lithuania and miss Quinn and other “studio 12 “artist was interviewed and appeared on Lithuanian television. She there after attended Paul Woods master workshop in Huntington L.I, and in 1998 joined Steven Lampansona’s master class in the Nassau County Museum of Art. Many of her art works were selected for juried exhibitions including the Annual Long Island Juried Exhibition, the Independent Art League, Huntington Arts Council and the Atrium Gallery in Melville. Her works were individually exhibited at the Nyack Art Gallery and she participated in other exhibitions include the Heckscher Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Avery Fisher Hall, The Cornell Club, the mayor’s office and various libraries on Long Island. Her last exhibition was at the Hewlett library in 2018.

In addition to all the above she also received a M.S. in library science at Long Island University and was employed by the freeport library as an art historian research librarian. She gave lectures in the library and elsewhere on NYC architecture and Egyptian art. She was also a 30-year member of the American Association of University Women and enjoyed being a soprano with two different coral groups on Long Island. She is survived by her devoted children and stepdaughters and daughter-in-law Susan O'Brien. As called by her grandchildren and great grandchildren “Nonni”, she will be sorely missed by Yosef (Tracy) and Shawn Qureshi, Edward and Anabel Wilpan, Kathleen, Thomas and Michael Kearns and Vanessas Chambers, Vincent Pomponio, Maverick Qureshi, Katie, John and Christopher Schroeder, Mireya and Zoe Chambers, Kayla Saunders, Sierra and Jackson Kearns.