Joanne Young

Joanne Winifred Young, née Davidge, born on July 11, 1927, passed away peacefully on January 9, 2022.

Joanne grew up in Weston, Ontario, when it was a still a small town, and attended the University of Toronto, graduating with a BA in Social Work, later obtaining her Masters of Education at The University of Western Ontario. While at the U of T she met and married William Lorne Young. Together they had four children. Bill passed away in August of 1956 after exposure to radiation while working in a uranium refinery.

Joanne taught high school while raising her children, primarily in Haliburton and Exeter. In the early eighties she attended peace marches where she engaged in civil dis-obedience resulting in multiple arrests followed by hunger strikes while in jail. As part of her effort to obtain justice for her husband, she wrote Nuclear Family, One Woman’s Confrontation with Atomic Power, a book described as a moving account of how and why one courageous woman turned family tragedy into personal commitment. Interested readers can refer to https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48694908-nuclear-family

Joanne was active in The Voice of Women, The Raging Grannies, Science for Peace, and The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, among other organizations. She supported numerous charities that worked for social justice, women’s equity, ecological responsibility, and animal welfare. Joanne was also an avid collector of antiques, with a strong interest in her family’s history. She was admired and respected for her tenacity, intelligence and fighting spirit, a wonderful story-teller with a sense of humour like no other.

She will be missed by her children Karen, Janet and Janet’s son Teddy, Bill, Gayle and Gayle’s husband Reiner, and their son Lorne, aka “Mr. Doo,” as Joanne called him. Joanne is warmly remembered by her sister Vida Bridgeman of Markham, her brother-in-law Fred Gillman of Brantford, her nieces and nephews, and her friends and neighbours.