The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
JoAnn Zavodnick, of Somerset, passed away peacefully at home surrounded by her loving family. She was 71.
Born in Newark, NJ to the late Dominick Lopizzo and Maria “Teddy” Conway, née Gaber, she spent her youth in Metuchen. She moved to Somerset in the late 1970s before moving to Waretown, then back to Somerset in 2019.
JoAnn loved reading, baking cheesecakes, animals (especially dogs), listening to music from the 60s and 70s, especially Elton John, the Beatles, the Temptations, Earth Wind & Fire and anything with a groove.
She also enjoyed participating in various activities in the communities where she lived in Waretown and Somerset. She helped start a women’s billiards club and also loved playing Mahjong. Above all, she was a homemaker as well as a devoted wife, mother and grandmother, always attending her grandchildren’s events.
She was predeceased by her parents; husband, Steven in 2017; sister, Rosa Smith in January 2025, and recently, her longtime companion and beloved dog Babe.
Surviving are her sons, Scott (with Kristin Kosmoski) of Somerville and Joseph (wife, Diana) of Bound Brook; daughter, Lauren Zavodnick of Hillsborough; grandchildren, Sophia, Luca and Penelope (aka ‘Poppy’), and her beloved dog Cici.
Visitation will be held from 4-8 p.m. June 12 at the Gleason Funeral Home, 1360 Hamilton Street, Somerset.
Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. June 13 at the funeral home.
Burial to follow in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Somerset
Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, Tennessee 38105.
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