Joanne Emma (Coyne) Desilets of Peabody died Thursday, November 5, 2026 at Lahey Hospital in Burlington with her family around her. She was 83.
She was born in Lynn on October 4, 1943 to Martin Joseph Coyne and Phyllis (DiChirico) Robish, grew up in the city and finished St. Mary’s High School in 1961. Her first job was at Kemper Insurance in Lynn. After she married Rudolph J. “Rudy” Desilets she went to UPS, where she stayed 30 years as the company’s only woman pre-sorter at the time, working nights so she could be home with her children by day. Her coworkers knew her chocolate trifle and Congo squares. Rudy died in 2014 after 49 years of marriage.
Faith organized her days. At Saint Adelaide Church in West Peabody she sang in the choir, built the liturgical bulletin boards, looked after the church linens and volunteered at the Silver Social. She was a longtime member of the Third Order of Discalced Carmelites and made her final promises on December 14, 2013, the feast of St. John of the Cross. The Carmel of Saint Thérèse in Danvers, where her daughter Sister Bernadette was a member, became a second home: she went to daily Mass there after retiring, visited the sisters often and brought them lettuce and tomatoes from her garden.
She put up tomatoes, made pickles and relish, baked chiffon birthday cakes dressed with fresh flowers and never visited anyone without a loaf of Irish bread. She kept what her family calls a phone ministry, calling friends every day to check in. She raised four German shorthaired pointers, went along on her husband’s pheasant hunts, watched old films, murder mysteries and the Cooking Channel, and did water aerobics each week at the Danvers YMCA with her sister Eileen. Her three grandchildren were, in her family’s words, the blessing she delighted in most.
She leaves her daughters Heather Lagonakis and her husband Angelo of Salem and Sister Bernadette of the Immaculate Conception, O.C.D., of Holy Trinity Carmel in Washington state; her grandchildren Alexandra, Nondas and Demitrios; her sisters Eileen Bakoian and her husband Robert of Middleton and Maryann Ford of Beverly; and nieces and nephews.
Visiting hours are Tuesday, November 10 from 3 to 7 p.m. at C.R. Lyons and Sons Funeral Directors, 28 Elm Street, Danvers Square. A Requiem Mass will be celebrated Wednesday, November 11 at 11 a.m. at Saint Adelaide Church, Lowell Street, Peabody, with burial to follow at Puritan Lawn Memorial Park in West Peabody. Memorial donations may be made to Holy Trinity Carmel, 4027 S. Wilbur Road, Spokane Valley, WA 99206, or to Saint Adelaide Parish, 712 Lowell Street, Peabody, MA 01960.
Compiled from information published by Peabody, MA. Photograph courtesy of the family via Peabody, MA. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s page on Legacy.com. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.
