Joan Regan McGivern of East Hampton and Palm Beach, Fla., died in her sleep in Palm Beach on May 5. Mrs. McGivern, who was 91, had been an interior decorator connected with Ellen McCluskey Associates for many years and continued on a freelance basis after the death of the company’s namesake.
She was active with many organizations here, in Palm Beach, and formerly in Manhattan, including the East Hampton Ladies Village Improvement Society, the New York Junior League, Boys Harbor, the East Hampton Historical Society, and the Society of the Four Arts. A tennis player and in more recent years a bridge player, she was a member of the Maidstone Club in East Hampton and the Bath and Tennis Club in Palm Beach.
Mrs. McGivern was born in New York City on Oct. 31, 1931, to John N. Regan and the former Kathleen Maguire. Halloween was not only her birthday but a favorite holiday, her family wrote. She grew up in Manhattan and East Hampton, graduating from the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Manhattan before earning a bachelor’s degree in math and chemistry from Manhattanville College.
Throughout her life she was a passionate reader who sometimes read a book a day. Time with her grandchildren was one of her great joys, her family said.
On June 20, 1955, she married the Hon. Owen McGivern, a former New York State legislator who by the time of their wedding was serving as a justice of the State Supreme Court. They had five children.
Justice McGivern died in 1998. Mrs. McGivern is survived by their children, Owen McGivern and Tara McGivern Lynn of Manhattan, Joan M. McGivern of East Hampton, Thomas More McGivern of San Francisco, Morgan O. McGivern of East Hampton, and by eight grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
She also leaves her siblings Virginia Coleman of Manhattan and East Hampton, John Regan of Millbrook, Conn., Thomas Winston Regan of Ireland, Andrew Regan of Manhattan, Southampton, and Delray Beach, Fla., and Ellen Regan of Manhattan. Her sister Robin Regan died before her.
Mrs. McGivern was a member of Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton, where a service will be held on Aug. 12 at 10:30 a.m., followed by a reception at the Maidstone Club. Burial will be at Most Holy Trinity Cemetery on Cedar Street.
