Joan Aline Butterman Tyler Smith passed away peacefully in Santa Rosa, Calif., on March 19, 2023. She was 87 years of age. She was born to Richard L. Butterman and Eileen (Gordon) Butterman in July of 1935, in the town of Chester, Mass.
Joan attended area grammar schools, graduated high school, and went on to the Butera School of Art in Boston, Mass., graduating with a degree in commercial art.
She obtained her teaching certification from the University of Maine system later in her life.
She married Robert McKay Tyler, of Boston, Mass., in November of 1958. Joan spent the first 20 years of her married life as the wife of a United States Air Force officer. She raised four children, loved to travel, loved her cat, Tanya, and was creatively artistic wherever she went. She moved to Maine in the summer of 1974 and became an art teacher in the Lincolnville, Appleton, Hope, and Isleboro school systems. She also spent many summers working at the Smiling Cow gift shop in Camden.
She met and married Lee Smith in the summer of 1981. They both loved to travel, spend time with family, go out to eat, and take trips to Florida and North Carolina. There, they collected shells, which Joan would turn into what she called her “shell pictures.” When she retired from teaching, they both traveled around the United States, working as they went and spending several years living in Florida, California, and Washington.
In addition to her parents, Joan was predeceased by her husband of 40 years, Lee Worthington Smith, of Seattle, Wash.
Surviving are her children, Darci Jo (Tyler) Harrington and her husband, Eric, of Bristol, Jenifer (Tyler) Berry and her husband, Patrick, of Santa Rosa, Calif., Leslie (Tyler) Benner and her husband, Kevin, of Bristol, Michael L. Tyler and his wife, Jana, of Greenville; six grandchildren, Michael Harrington, Anna (Abbotoni) McNamara, Tyler Abbotoni, Megan Prinzi, Hayden Berry, and Lian Harrington; and four great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her brother, Judson Butterman, of Placitas, N.M.; and many nieces and nephews.
A service of remembrance will be held in the summer of 2023, here in Maine.
