Joyce Lenard, advocate for public service and health, dies at 89

If there was one word to describe Joyce Lenard, it would be “humanitarian,” her daughter Jill said.

Known for her lifelong commitment to helping others, Lenard built a life that spanned careers in education, public service and health advocacy, according to friends and family. No matter where that life took her, she made a lasting impression on the people she met, often turning strangers into friends and friends into family.

“It sounds very cliché, but it’s true. It’s who she was,” Jill Lenard told Newsday.

Joyce Lenard died July 6 at a hospice facility in Melville from complications related to a brain injury. She was 89.

Born on Nov. 13, 1935, in Manhattan, Lenard grew up in Flatbush, the youngest of three children. Her parents owned a neighborhood candy store where she worked alongside her two older brothers, according to Jill.  

Lenard graduated from Erasmus Hall High School and earned her bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College in 1956. Years later, she returned to higher education, completing a master’s degree in teaching special education, according to Jill.

Lenard taught K-12 education in Brooklyn and then eventually special education when she moved to Syosset with her husband, Shelly, along with Jill and another daughter, Susan, in 1969. 

Although Lenard “unofficially” retired from teaching in the late 1990s, that marked the start of her second career, Jill said.

Worked for Sen. Clinton

On June 5, 2000, then-first lady Hillary Clinton, who was running for U.S. Senate in New York, marched in the Israel Day Parade in Manhattan. Lenard — who had a “very shameless side to her,” Jill told Newsday — followed Clinton along the parade route.

“She was not afraid to approach people,” Jill said.

Lenard told Clinton she believed she would be the next senator and that she wanted to help make it happen, according to her daughter. 

Clinton directed her to contact Resi Cooper, a Long Island volunteer for the campaign. When the two met in the Nassau County Democratic Committee Headquarters, Cooper said, it launched a personal friendship the two “soulmates” would have for decades. 

Lenard, shortly after, volunteered for Clinton’s campaign and, after Clinton was elected, was hired in October 2001 to serve as her assistant regional director alongside Cooper, who served as the regional director. Lenard handled constituent services, fielding calls and concerns from Long Islanders.

At Lenard's funeral, Cooper described her as someone who could “talk the stripes off a zebra.”

“Constituents would call angry and hang up having a new friend in Joyce. In fact, she had a full roster of weekly callers who would call just to check in on what was happening — in the world, on Long Island, and in each other’s lives,” Cooper said. “It was remarkable.”

Clinton, in a letter that was read at Lenard’s funeral, wrote that Lenard “never stopped fighting” for those around her, “from Nassau County to Montauk Point.”

“I will always be grateful for her dedicated service, and for her indefatigable commitment to advancing our shared values,” Clinton wrote.

When Clinton became secretary of state in 2009, Lenard remained in politics, joining the office of Nassau County Legis. Dave Mejias.

One of Cooper’s favorite stories about Lenard involves a constituent who hung up on her, only to have Lenard to call back and ask why he’d do “such a rude thing.” The two later became friends.

“She made things happen,” Cooper, of Huntington, told Newsday.

After briefly working for Mejias’ office, Lenard worked for the Town of North Hempstead for 10 years. There, she organized senior programs like “Funday Mondays,” launched a book club and relentlessly fundraised, according to Cooper.

“My mom was older than any of the seniors that she was working with. She seemed like the youngest, but they were all older than her,” Jill said.

A kidney donor

Lenard’s care for others wasn’t confined to politics. In 2003, in her late 60s, she became the oldest living kidney donor in NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s history when she donated a kidney to daughter Susan Lenard, according to Jill. 

Cooper recalled Lenard being back to her regular routine within a week.

Two years later, Lenard experienced a health scare at her grandson Matthew Leitner's bar mitzvah. She began experiencing a sharp, persistent sensation in her chest. She later learned she had takotsubo cardiomyopathy, also known as broken-heart syndrome.

The diagnosis set her on a new path. With the help of her cardiologist, Dr. Stacey Rosen, Lenard trained with the Mayo Clinic to become a WomenHeart Champion, a peer leader who runs support groups for women with heart disease for Northwell Health. Lenard embraced the role, sharing her experience and empowering others to live healthier, more mindful lives.

“Joyce and I have the perfect partnership,” Rosen said in a PIX11 News interview in 2017. “Together, we have been able to keep Joyce healthy, and now she’s using everything she’s learned to empower other women.”

Susan and Jill, in their eulogy, described their mother as their biggest supporter through every stage of life. Lenard had a signature phone greeting for those “dearest to her”: “‘Hi, my honey,’” Jill said in her eulogy. 

“It had to come from her,” Jill said. “When it came from her, it meant the most.”

Lenard's circle grew to include her “bonus family,” as her daughters called them; close friends like Cooper and Cooper's daughter, Jana Tonsager, whom Lenard treated as her own granddaughter.

“She didn’t just live a life well lived. She made life better for everyone she encountered,” Cooper said at Lenard’s funeral.

Survivors include Lenard's two daughters and her grandson. Her husband, Shelly, died in 2011. 

A graveside service was held July 10. Burial was at Mt. Hebron Cemetery in Queens.