TOWNSEND- Joellyn (McCann) Nevins, of Townsend, passed away surrounded by her family on March 6, 2022 at UMass Hospital in Worcester.

Joellyn was born in Lowell, Massachusetts on August 6, 1944. She grew up a military brat and lived in France for a while, as well as Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Cape Cod. She attended college at East Stroudsburg College in Pennsylvania, where she met Thomas Nevins on a blind date. Tom proposed on Valentine’s Day 1967, and they were married on July 27, 1968. They lived in Hightstown, NJ, where Joellyn was a teacher in a geodesic dome open space school in a new area of that town. They briefly lived in Orchard Park, New York before moving to Townsend in 1973, where they raised their family.Joellyn was a reading specialist and elementary teacher at Russell Street School and Shaker Lane School in Littleton from 1974 to 2006, when she retired from teaching, though she still had teacher dreams from time to time and never really stopped thinking about teaching, passing on her love of reading to her grandkids.An avid reader, bird watcher, Red Sox and Patriots fan, Joellyn also loved to garden and to sit at one of the many fire pits she and Tom had in their backyard, listening to their music programs while enjoying a martini.Joellyn loved camping, geocaching, and throwing away stuff without Tom knowing. She and Tom enjoyed going out to lunch, especially in Boston, and attending their grandkids’ sporting events. Joellyn, the quintessential Mom and Nana, was happiest when spending time with her family, teaching her kids and grandkids that “morning will come too early,” (as it always does), the importance of thank you notes, and of celebrating holidays with special napkins and decorations.She was the kindest person we all knew, generous and thoughtful. She loved to wish people happy birthday and praise other people’s activities on Facebook, even though she didn’t really know how Facebook worked.Joellyn is survived by her husband of 53 years, Thomas Nevins; her children, Christopher and Jes Nevins of Leominster, Patrick Nevins and Stephanie Frechette of Clinton, and Kathleen Nevins LaClair and Russell Bonilla of Concord, NH; and her three grandchildren, Conner Nevins and Parker and Avery LaClair.Her funeral Mass will be celebrated on Wednesday, March 16, at 10 AM in St. John the Evangelist Church, 1 School St., Townsend. Calling hours will be held from 4 to 7PM on Tuesday, March 15, in the T.J. Anderson & Son Funeral Home, 250 Main St., (Rte 119) Townsend Center. For directions or for online condolences, please visit www.andersonfuneral.com.