“This room will never be the same,” Claire Newell said, her voice cracking with emotion. “Patricia was a great lady, one of my best friends here at work.”
Newell, who serves as president of AFSCME AFL-CIO Council 94, Local 2872 at the Rhode Island Department of Education, was speaking of the late Patricia Jackvony, a popular Johnston native who lost her battle with cancer back on Sept. 1, 2014.
“Our hearts are still broken,” Newell went on, describing her late friend as a “great lady who loved life and people and would do anything and everything for anyone. We shared many memories – and Patricia’s great food – in this room. Her legacy will live forever.”
One reason, in particular, is that Newell and ladies like Lisa Foer and Maryann Sneider, among others, wanted to have Room 408 named in honor and memory of Jackvony.
Moreover, as Newell went on: “The three of us met and wanted to do something special for Patricia. She was a special person who always went above and beyond to help everyone.”
Thus, Newell, Foer and Sneider approached former Commissioner of Education Deborah Gist and asked if, in fact, Room 408 could be named in Jackvony’s memory.
Gist never hesitated, and was also among the many admirers of Jackvony, who worked at the Department of Education for 22 years.
The next step was organizing a brief dedication ceremony, for which the members of Local 2872 would have the dedication plaque made.
Jackvony’s co-workers – who were many – also put together a special book of her recipes.
“We would have lunch every day in the cafeteria and watch ‘Days of Our Lives,’” Newell said. “That’s also when Pat would feed us or have us try one of her recipes. Sheila Belvieau has retired and Pat is gone, so lunches here are lonely and certainly not the same.”
Jackvony – the wife of Vincent Jackvony, mother of Vincent Jackvony Jr. and Jenna Jackvony Marchal, grandmother of four, and daughter of Grace D’Andrea and the late Sonny Russo – will never be forgotten at the Department of Education, where Newell said “she always put everyone ahead of herself.”
She did the same thing during her earlier years when she worked at Johnston High School, where she was also loved and respected.
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