Joanna Haight Adelberg

New Lebanon – Joanna Haight Adelberg, 92, died peacefully in the Hospice unit at Berkshire Medical Center, Pittsfield, MA, on Tuesday, September 29, 2009.
Born at Presbyterian Hospital in New York City on May 29, 1917, she was the daughter of the late Austin and Myra Fox Haight. She was in the first graduating class of New Lebanon Central High School in 1935. She then continued her education at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, graduating in the class of 1941, and received her M.S.W. from Boston University in 1944.
Joanna was the general secretary and caseworker for the Church Mission of Help of the Albany Diocese from 1948 to 1951. This was the forerunner of the present Episcopal Counseling Service which now has branches throughout the Diocese. From 1951 until 1975 she held positions in the welfare field in the Boston area, ranging from child placement to her last ten years at the Veterans Administration dealing with geriatric problems, which included veterans of the Spanish American War. In the 1980s she was the Treasurer of Poor World Development Group INC., which was founded by her cousin Ripley Fox. This group’s main goal was to help starving people in underdeveloped countries.
While at Boston University she met her future husband, Herbert Adelberg, whom she married in the fall of 1952. They had a small ceremony in her family home in New Lebanon, which was presided over by her father, who was the Town Justice for 40 years.
Upon retiring she returned to the New Lebanon valley where she spent her remaining days in what she referred to as “her little house on the hillside.” She remained a life-long member of the Church of Our Saviour in Lebanon Springs, NY.
Joanna was a loving relative and a dear friend. She leaves behind her beloved cousins, Dr. Ripley Fox and his wife Denise of San Bauzille de Putois, France, Katherine B. Swan and her son Robert Swan both of Santa Fe, NM, and Nancy Ornelas of Lake City, FL. She also leaves behind her dear friends and caregivers Nancy Raimer, Georgianna Raimer, Thomas Raimer and Robert Cummings of Stephentown, NY, her oldest and dearest friend, Jeannie Mercer of Mystic, Connecticut, her good friend, Mary Lou Olsen of New Lebanon, NY, and her Goddaughters, Mary Joanna Schenck and Chloe Reese.
Calling hours are Friday, October 9, from 11 am to 1 pm at the Hall and Higgens Funeral Home, 457 NY 43, Stephentown. A memorial service is at 2 pm at the Church of Our Saviour (across from New Lebanon High School) in Lebanon Springs, where Rev. Canon Clinton Dugger will read the Burial Office. Interment will follow directly in the Cemetery of the Evergreens with a memorial reception to be held at Friendship House in the Church at 3:30 pm.