Joan Cohen (née Zimmerman), age 83, daughter of Jay Zimmerman and Bernice (Tommy) Zimmerman (née Tucker), died 24 February 2025 from the effects of Alzheimer’s.
Joan is survived by her sister, Jill Cooper Udall of Santa Fe, NM, sons Jonathan Lawrence Cohen (Donna) of St. Louis, and Seth Tucker Cohen (Sarah Spengler) of Santa Fe, granddaughters Cecilia Cohen and Lila Cohen, and niece Amanda Joan Cooper.
Joan grew up in Clayton, Missouri and graduated in 1959 from Clayton High School where she was an outstanding scholar and a cheerleader. She received her bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College in 1963, having majored in philosophy. After spending time working in New York City, including a stint with A.C. Nielson Co., she moved back to St. Louis and married Dr. Jerome D. Cohen in 1964 (divorced).
Joan excelled in diverse career paths, all while raising a family. She obtained a master’s degree in counseling psychology at Washington University, working for a time providing counseling to students. While at Washington University and the University of Missouri St. Louis in the early 1970s, Joan helped develop assertiveness training programs for women and produced what were at the time cutting-edge training films on the subject, including The Maturing Woman.
Improving the lives of women would be a theme throughout Joan’s life and work. In 1980, with co-authors Karen Coburn and Joan Pearlman, she wrote Hitting our Stride, published by Delacourt Press, a seminal book on the topic of women and aging.
Joan also had a longstanding love of and devotion to the arts. She was active in the development of the contemporary art community in St. Louis as the co-owner of Grafik Gallery, which specialized in fine art prints. She served on the board of the Craft Alliance in St. Louis. She later served for several terms on the Clayton Arts Commission, including as its Chair, and led efforts to place major public artworks throughout the City of Clayton.
In early 1980s, Joan pursued a lifelong dream of studying law, a remarkable undertaking for a thirty-nine-year-old woman with two school-aged children. In a 1981 article about her endeavor, she told the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, “When I graduated from college, when a woman was interested in law, she married a lawyer.” Joan went on to graduate magna cum laude and second in her class from St. Louis University School of Law in 1983.
Joan was then awarded prestigious federal clerkships on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, serving as a clerk for Judges Myron Bright and Richard Arnold. Upon completing her clerkships, she joined the law firm Armstrong Teasdale, quickly rising to become a partner at a time when doing so was far less common for women. She specialized in Human Relations and Employment Law representing, among other clients, the St. Louis Cardinals, Anheuser-Busch, and Southeast Missouri State University. She also did pro bono work on habeas corpus petitions for inmates facing the death penalty. All the while, she remained an attentive and loving mother to her two sons.
Although Joan spent much of her life in Clayton, she maintained a long-time residence in Santa Fe, New Mexico where she was a much-admired member of the community, savoring time and hosting friends and family at her home there, and serving on the boards of the Center for Contemporary Arts and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.
Joan had a deep capacity for friendship and leaves behind a legion of friends—many lifelong—in St. Louis, Santa Fe and elsewhere throughout the country.
Joan will be remembered for her intelligence, her elegance, her charm, wit and dignity. She was an especially loving mother and grandmother.
The family is most thankful for the vital friendship and support of Julie Colton in Joan’s final years.
In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to Planned Parenthood (4251 Forest Park Avenue, St. Louis, MO, 63108), or to the Alzheimer’s Association (www.alz.org) in Joan’s honor.
The family will plan a memorial gathering for Joan in the near future. Please visit bergermemorialchapel.com for more information. BERGER MEMORIAL SERVICE
