AUBURN – Joan Mary Wilkey Chapman, 80, died Sunday, July 10, at the Clover Nursing Home in Auburn, where she had been a resident since November 2004. Prior to that, she resided at 148 Broad St., Auburn.

Born April 21, 1925, in Witham, England, she was the daughter of Thomas and Emily Smith Wilkey. Educated in the schools of England, she arrived in the U.S. via the Queen Mary in 1946.

She resided in Utica, N.Y., where she worked in various retail women’s clothing businesses, until her retirement in April 1990. She moved to Auburn in 1995.

Her joys were nature’s birds, flower gardening and her companion, Cassie the cat.

She is survived by her son, Preston T. “Charlie” and wife, Anita Chapman, of Auburn; two daughters, Terri and husband, Jim Richards, of Willingborough, N.J., and Mary Margaret Lynch of Ottawa, Canada; a brother, Edward of England; a sister-in-law, Edie Wilkey of England; grandsons, Kevin Chapman of Auburn, and David and wife, Dee Chapman, of Auburn; two great-grandchildren, Cade and Reed Chapman; as well as several cousins in England.

She was predeceased by her parents; a sister, Emily; and a brother, Thomas.

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