Former Newark councillor, magistrate and author Joan Stephenson dies aged 95

A former town councillor, magistrate and a trustee of St Leonard’s, who worked tirelessly to improve Newark and its facilities, has died, aged 95.

Mrs Joan Stephenson died in a care home in Somerset, where she lived near her daughter, Jane.

“My mother was an amazing woman in many ways and managed to pack into every decade of her life more than most people manage in a life time,” said her youngest daughter, Mrs Barbara Long.

“She always said that one of the most useful things you can give to good causes and friends is your time and she dedicated hours of her life to others.”

Mrs Stephenson came to Newark in her 20s when she married Ralph Stephenson, director of the Newark agricultural engineering firm Geo Stephenson and Sons (later Windsor and Stephensons).

She loved Newark with all its historical associations and worked tirelessly to improve the town and its facilities.

In her early years she campaigned as area organiser for War On Want and Save The Children Fund.

As a town councillor in the late 1960s and early 1970s she noticed that her constituents had nowhere to go to play inside with their young children, so she campaigned to set up Newark’s first playgroup.

At the age of 42 she was appointed as a magistrate at the Newark bench, the youngest female magistrate to be appointed at the time.

She was chairperson of the Family Court and when she retired nearly 30 later she was the longest serving female magistrate.

For decades she was a trustee of St Leonard’s Trust, serving there also as a chairperson. She finally retired in her late 80s after opening the new complex on Mount Lane.

Mrs Stephenson was a formidable campaigner to preserve parts of historic Newark, managing to save the houses on Wilson Street and Curries Old Block in the market place from destruction. She also helped to restore The Palace Theatre, serving for many years on the Palace theatre Committee.

She helped to set up the Newark Advertiser’s Talking Newspaper.

Mrs Stephenson was also enterprising, setting up Trent Valley Holidays with help from the Newark Tourist Board to attract foreign visitors to Newark and, as a keen antique collector herself, she had a stand in Newark Antiques Centre for many years.

As a writer Mrs Stephenson wrote and published two historical novels, Dear Retrospect and Drusillla, both based in the town.

Keen to encourage other local writers she helped to set up the writers group, Fosseway Writers.

“Everyone in Newark knew mum, walking around the market place with her always took hours because she was always stopping to talk to the people she knew, from the market store holders to local dignitaries,” said Mrs Long.

She reluctantly left Newark four years ago when her blindness made it too difficult to continue in her own home. Despite her infirmities she continued to relate old tales of Newark and was uplifted by visits and news from Newark friends.

More than 100 mourners attended a thanksgiving funeral service at Newark Parish Church and gathered after at Newark Town Hall to share memories of her.

She is buried in Newark cemetery alongside her beloved husband Ralph Stephenson, who died in 2005.

She leaves behind three children, four grandsons and one great grandson and is much missed by family and countless friends.

Donations may be made in her memory to Newark Emmaus Trust, online at www.egillandsoons.co.uk or sent to E Gill & Sons Ltd, Funeral Directors, 55 Albert Street, Newark, Notts, NG24 4BQ.