- Date Of Death: December 6, 2020
- State: Pennsylvania
PERNAJoan (nee Baionno), age 77, on December 6, 2020 of Media, formerly of Springfield, PA.Survived by her husband of 57 years, Joseph A. Perna IV, her children Debby A. (Larry) Basher, Joseph A. V, Lisa A. (Patrick) Keenan and Matthew (Catherine), her 5 Grandchildren; L.J., Alyssa, Michael, Cassie, and Lisette, brother-in-law Robert “Bob” Ficco (late Veronica) and sister-in-law Dorothy (late Anthony Baionno).Joan was born in the Overbrook section of West Philly. She attended Our Lady of Lourdes grade school and graduated from West Catholic Girls’ High School in 1961. While still in school, at 15 years old, Joan would meet the young man with whom she would spend the next 62 years of her life. They say it was love at first sight; well, at the very least it was that for Joe Perna IV, who could not take his eyes off of the beautiful, voluptuous young woman who would become his was a fairy tale in the making. Family lore has it that when Joe’s mother was pregnant with him, she was fitted for a dress by Joan’s mother. The two women wouldn’t meet again until 17 years later when the families were brought together by the marriage of Joan’s sister. It was by fate that Joe had been invited to the wedding. Sometime before then, Joe’s widowed grandmother married the grandfather of Joan’s new brother-in-law. Joe’s new grandfather, fond of him, requested that Joe attend the wedding. On that day, the love of family elders, already bound by the sanctity of marriage, and the love of two young ones, freshly bound, brought together two strangers whose love had yet to bloom, but, when it had, would endure and Joe became inseparable. Proud of his new high school ring, Joe insisted before meeting Joan that he would never give it to another. Not three weeks after he first put it on, he offered it to the young woman who forever stole his heart and mind.A few years later, they were married. Within a year, Joan gave birth to their first child, Debby. Less than one year later, she became pregnant with their second, Joseph V. With a burgeoning family, it was time they moved from the house of Joe’s parents in Havertown and into their own. So, Joan and Joe moved into a twin on Oakley Road in Upper Darby; there the eventuality of Joan’s legacy as a meticulous homemaker and devoted caretaker had taken root.Eight years later and two more children, Lisa and Matthew, Joan and Joe’s family had outgrown the Oakley Road house. It was on to Springfield into a four-bedroom house that Joe helped to build while working for his uncle’s company. With the four children in tow, Debby (9), Joseph V (7), Lisa (4), and Matthew (10 mos.), Joan and Joe established themselves in the house that would be their home for the next 45 home it was. Family was the center of Joan’s life and the dinner table was the center of her family. A rectangular wood table located in the eat-in kitchen is where she, Joe, and the four children gathered every evening for a home-cooked meal. When friends or extended family would come by, chairs were brought in from the dining room and squeezed around the table.
