Joan Taylor Prewitt, award-winning gardener, dies at 81
A gifted gardener, Mrs. Prewitt's passion was seeing to it that her family also flourished. “She was 150% for you, for family,” her husband said.
Joan Taylor Prewitt, 81, of Wayne, a gifted floral artist and devoted wife and mother, died April 5 at Bryn Mawr Hospital of kidney cancer.
Generous and dynamic, Mrs. Prewitt found success in just about every endeavor she attempted in life — teaching, volunteering, gardening, floral arranging. But according to her husband, David Prewitt, the thread that ran through it all was her love of family.
“She was 150% for you, for family,” said her partner for 58 years. “That’s the way she was. She was wonderful.”
Born in Washington, D.C., Mrs. Prewitt was the oldest of three children of William and Katherine Taylor. She and her family moved to Alabama and then to Maryland because of her father’s work in the mechanical calculator business, but they later settled in Philadelphia. Mrs. Prewitt attended the Baldwin School and graduated from Hollins College in Virginia, where she studied religion and philosophy.
In 1959, she met her future husband while they were taking summer classes at the University of Pennsylvania. At the time, the then Miss Taylor was trying to earn credits to graduate early from Hollins, and David Prewitt was trying to make up for a D he had gotten in German at Dartmouth College. They began their courtship and later married.
As the young wife of a helicopter pilot serving in Vietnam, Mrs. Prewitt began her teaching career in Maryland. She later taught on base when her husband was stationed at Fort Benning, Ga., and in North Carolina while her husband attended law school at Duke University.
Always a believer in the importance of education, Mrs. Prewitt focused her attention on her children’s education, often volunteering at their schools.
“She wanted to make sure her kids got a great education,” her husband said. “If you’re a good parent, you get involved in the schools.”
Mrs. Prewitt did more than that. When her husband started his law practice, she became his office manager. When the family needed more money for college tuition, she began a new career in real estate.
And she found time to develop her own labor of love as well.
Long an avid gardener, Mrs. Prewitt began entering her own exhibits into the Philadelphia Flower Show and became a frequent winner. She gave her entries her all — as she did with most things she took on, her husband said.
Her first blue ribbon — for a succulent display — surprised her.
One year, she won for a French themed-extravaganza based on A Tale of Two Cities’ character Madame Defarge, with roses filling in for blood. In 2018, she branched out to horticulture from arranging and won Best in Show for her begonias.
She also supported veterans, and served on various Baldwin committees and on the leadership board of the Women’s Resource Center in Wayne. Still, she found time to help plan several of her husband’s Dartmouth class reunions.
“She’s been the most supportive spouse you could ever imagine,” he said.
In addition to her husband, Mrs. Prewitt is survived by three daughters, Mary-Alice Michaels, Katherine and Elizabeth; five grandchildren; and a sister.
A celebration of life is being planned for later this year.
Contributions in Mrs. Prewitt’s memory can be made to the Baldwin School, 701 Montgomery Ave., Bryn Mawr, Pa., 19010