Joanne M. (Tenero) Kaczman

Joanne Kaczman lived her 90 years of life with style, with grace and with love. She was an artist; a painter who exhibited in Wadsworth Atheneum, a creator and teacher of stained glass and she made the most amazing wedding cakes of all time. She was a producer; Joanne started with a TV Talent show for area youth to showcase talent, she enjoyed judging pageants, she created the Westfield Fair Talent & Beauty Pageant and hosted it for many years and she organized and held the first Miss Western Massachusetts Pageant, a regional preliminary for the Miss America Pageant.  Joanne was a pioneer in helping to bring performing arts to Western Massachusetts. Joanne was a great business woman. With her artistic touch, she started designing and sewing dance costumes and after winning several major dance competition costume awards Joanne created a dance costume catalog and also opened Studio 5 Dancewear in Westfield, MA.  She ran this successful business with her husband Bob for many years and made thousands of happy local dancers smile along the way. On top of all that, she also taught Tap at New England Dance & Gymnastics Centers and worked as the office manager for many years. And so very important to our family, she was a mother, a MA-2, a grandmother and a great-grandmother. After raising and guiding three children and surviving the death of her oldest son, she helped raise four of her grandchildren, earning her the affectionate nickname of MA-2.  She was always the voice of reason, a shoulder to cry on, a smile when you really needed it and of course that always gentle push to go out and be what you could be. Joanne is survived by her husband Robert Kaczman, her son Ken Kaczman and his wife Eileen, her daughter Loree Cloud and her husband Jeff, her grandchildren Sarah, Christine, Brett, Hayley & her husband Mirko, Christopher and Jade, and her great grandchildren Athena and Jayden. She is predeceased by her oldest son Mike Kaczman. While Joanne lived her life in the world of performing arts, at her passing she wanted no ceremonies or formal gatherings. She wanted everyone to think of her in their own way, to remember those special shared moments and mostly to keep on always living and loving. With Joanne’s lifelong love of animals, any donations in her memory should go to The Westfield Homeless Cat Project, 1124 E Mountain Rd, Westfield, MA 01085 or In Honey’s Name Cat Shelter, P.O. Box 147 Huntington, MA 01050.

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