Joanie Winston Passes Away (1931-2008)

Joanie Winston, 77, an organizer of the original Star Trek conventions of the early 1970s, died September 11 after several months in an assisted living center.

I remember her from the 1975 NASFiC, and a couple other cons of that era.

ComicMix gives a detailed look back at her life.

Her chapter in Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Sondra Marshak’s Star Trek Lives! provided people with a glimpse into the birth of the conventions along with a take on the Star Trek fan fiction world. She continued to talk about those days, providing information to William Shatner for his Get a Life! memoir and can be seen on camera in Denise Crosby’s documentary Trekkies 2.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg, in her review of the Trekkies 2 DVD, lists some of Winston’s credits:

Joanie Winston was a contributor to Star Trek Lives! with a chapter on the first Star Trek Convention in New York that started all this. She went on to write a whole book — The Making Of The Trek Conventions: Or, How To Throw A Party For 12,000 Of Your Most Intimate Friends by Joan Winston. And she edited Star Toons — Trek cartoons…

Two more well-known fans listed among those “starring” in Trekkies 2 are Ben Yalow and Leslie Fish.

The Trekkies 2 site has an image of her at a Shore Leave in Baltimore.

One thought on “Joanie Winston Passes Away (1931-2008)

  1. It should be noted that Joanie Winston wasn’t a Star Trek fan only. I first met her at MidAmeriCon in ’76, and re-met her at Chambanacon in Champaign/Urbana, Illinois during Thanksgiving weekend in ’85 or ’86. Not knowing her that well, I expressed surprise she was not at one of the Trek megacons held that weekend in New York City or Chicago rather than playing poker at a 200-person fannish relaxacon in an obscure Illinois college town(*).

    As I said, I didn’t know her that well — but being able to spend more time with her there than at a worldcon, I found she was open, friendly, fannish, and delightful — and of course, a mean poker player who could have held her own with the Midwestcon card sharps or any LASFS Oh-Hellions. I’m sorry she’s gone — I had always hoped to re-meet her again.

    (*)(Albeit the college town where HAL 9000 was scheduled to be created.)

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