Joan Teresa O'Dell

JOAN O’DELL

Joan Teresa Walsh Valliere Boyce O’Dell, a longtime resident of Manchester, New Hampshire and Safety Harbor, Florida, died on July 30, 2017, at the Suncoast Hospice Center in Palm Harbor, Florida.  She was 83 years old. Joan was born in Manchester, New Hampshire on October 23, 1933, to Redmond Walsh and Florence Barrett Walsh.  She attended Manchester High School Central, graduating in 1951.  Both of her parents are long deceased, and Joan’s younger sister, Marye Walsh Southworth of West Haven, Connecticut, died in 2003.Joan lived much of her early life in Manchester (1933 through 1962) and Hooksett (1962 to 1970), New Hampshire.  In 1954, she married Ronald Edgar Valliere and over the next nine years, gave birth to five children.  After she and Ronald Valliere were divorced in 1970, Joan moved with her children back to Manchester, where she worked as an executive secretary for the Manchester Police Department and the Manchester Housing Authority.  During these years, Joan divided her time between her work and raising her five children. In 1982, Joan married George Boyce of West Haven, Connecticut, a friend of her brother-in-law.  Over the next 16 years, the Boyces lived in Manchester, West Haven, and finally Briar Creek, a retirement community in Safety Harbor, Florida.  Joan continued to live at Briar Creek after George’s death in 1999. In 2003, Joan married Thomas (Tom) O’Dell of West Virginia, whom she met at Briar Creek, and where they continued to live until Tom’s death in 2015.  In January of 2016, Joan moved to St Mark Village in Palm Harbor, Florida, where she lived until her death. During her long life, Joan was a devoted mother, grandmother, aunt, friend, and wife.  She was strikingly independent and unfailingly brave in facing all of life’s travails.  She especially loved the ocean, dancing, music, game shows, and crossword puzzles, and indeed games of all types.  Like her mother before her, Joan was a lifelong member of the Democratic Party and passionately followed politics, especially the presidential primaries.  She served twice as the President of the Briar Creek Social Club and for years organized and published its newsletter.  In her later years, she volunteered at the Mease Countryside Hospital in Safety Harbor, and the Suncoast Hospice Center in Palm Harbor, where she passed away.Joan is survived by her five children, Robert Joseph Valliere (wife Carole Lehman Valliere) of Laurel, Maryland, Mary Ann Valliere (husband Shipen Li) of Acton, Massachusetts, Barbara Joan Valliere (husband J. Douglas Wilson) of San Francisco, California, Teresa Valliere of Portland, Maine, and Matthew John Valliere (wife Eileen Skiathitis Valliere) of Goffstown, New Hampshire.   Joan also leaves behind five devoted grandchildren, Libby Cole, Jamay Li, Andrew Valliere, Jason Li, and Lucas Valliere, as well as nieces and nephews, many stepchildren and grand stepchildren, and close friends in New Hampshire and Florida.

There will be a memorial mass at the Espiritu Santo Catholic Church at 2405 Phillippe Parkway in Safety Harbor on Friday, August 25, 2017, at 10:00 a.m.  A burial service will be held in Bedford, New Hampshire later in the fall.

Joan benefitted greatly from the personal care that she received at the Suncoast Hospice Center during the last days of her life.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made in Joan’s honor to the Suncoast Hospice Center at Suncoast Hospice, 5771 Roosevelt Blvd., Clearwater, FL 33760 or https://suncoasthospice.org/donate.

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