Obituary of Joan K. Collins

Joan Kidd Collins, a registered nurse and mother of seven who was known for her service to the community during the 50 years she lived in Elmont, died late Thursday at a hospital in Clifton Springs, N.Y. She was 86. The cause of death was kidney failure, according to her daughter, Maureen Moses. Mrs. Collins volunteered as a Girl Scout leader, religious education instructor, social-service outreach worker and as a member of Teams of Our Lady, a spiritual and service group that aided Habitat for Humanity, among other causes. She was a surgical nurse at Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn and later worked per diem at Nassau Hospital, which became Winthrop University Hospital. Joan Dolores Kidd was born on May 23, 1929 in Brooklyn. Her father, Charles W. Kidd, was the chief of security at St. Mary’s Hospital in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn and her mother, Grace, worked at Victory Memorial Hospital in Brooklyn. She was graduated from St. Francis Xavier Academy for Young Ladies in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn in 1947 and then from St. Catherine’s School of Nursing in Greenpoint in 1950. She was married at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Brooklyn on June 30, 1951 to Francis X. Collins, who became a foreman at Con Edison and held many other jobs to support the growing Collins family. The family at first lived in the Canarsie section and then moved in 1959 to Elmont, residing in a house that previously had been the rectory for St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church. Mrs. Collins became deeply involved in the life of the parish, teaching religion classes and leading a troop of Girl Scouts, among various activities. In her retirement, she served in the parish’s large outreach service, using her nursing background to provide aid to many needy people in the Elmont area. Mrs. Collins and her husband became active in Teams of Our Lady, a Catholic spiritual movement for married couples. Their group had an activist bent, concerned with the plight of the poor and the quest for peace. “Knowing Frank and Joan, you get the sense that these are the kinds of the people that really push the message,” said Deacon Don Zirkel, a participant in the group and former editor of The Tablet, the newspaper of the Diocese of Brooklyn. He said the group’s agenda for helping the poor was similar to what Pope Francis is now urging Catholics to undertake. After her husband died in 2005, Mrs. Collins moved to Valley Stream and later to Macedon, N.Y., where she lived at the Parkwood Heights assisted living center. Mrs. Collins is survived by her brother, Jack Kidd, of Sayville, N.Y.; her children, Kathleen Manez of Bomoseen, Vt., Maureen Moses, of Brooklyn, N.Y., Michael Collins of Bow, Wash., Stephen Collins of Bellingham, Wash., Regina Collins of Lexington, Ky., Maria Collins Barbaro of Lancaster, Pa., and Barbara Zweigle of Macedon, N.Y.; their spouses; 20 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. A wake is to be held Sunday at Krauss Funeral Home in Franklin Square, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial is to be celebrated at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Elmont on Monday at 9:30 a.m.