New York advertising executive Joanna Slesinger Caproni, a summer resident of Truro for more than 60 years, died on Jan. 13, 2025 at New York Presbyterian Hospital. She was 91.
The daughter of Donald Slesinger and Dorothy Avery Slesinger, Joanna was born on Dec. 1, 1933, in Chicago. She and her older brother, Jonathan, grew up in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.
In the 1940s, her father, a psychiatrist, brought his family to Truro, where he bought a house on North Pamet Road and shuttled between his two homes until he retired here. Joanna spent her childhood summers in Truro, where she and her friends would sneak behind the old parsonage near Route 6 to smoke cigarettes.
According to her nephew, Paul Slesinger, she loved to watch the adults playing in the summer softball league at Snow’s Field, and she was very involved with the Pamet Yacht Club.
After graduating from high school at 16, Joanna attended Pembroke College (now part of Brown University), earning her B.A. in 1954. On vacation in St. Croix after graduation, she met Leo F. Caproni, who was working at a hotel there. They fell in love, wed in 1960, and were happily married for the next 56 years, until Leo’s death in 2016.
Joanna had a successful career in advertising, fearlessly entering the male-dominated business portrayed in the TV series Mad Men in the 1960s. She worked at a leading agency, BBDO, Life Magazine, and Sports Illustrated, and advanced to become vice president of Simmons Market Research Bureau, a job she held for 23 years. An early adopter of technology, she was the first in her office to take a 25-pound “portable” computer on the road for client demonstrations in the early 1980s.
In the 1970s, Joanna was given a parcel of land on North Pamet Road, where she built her own house and spent summer vacations. When she retired in 2001, she divided her time between New York City and Truro until 2010, when she sold the house and stayed in New York.
In 2011, Joanna worked with Leo to publish “Dartmouth at War,” a collection of essays on the World War II experiences of the Dartmouth College Class of 1942. She also wrote the 1942 class notes for the Dartmouth alumni magazine until she died.
During her later years, Joanna enjoyed the New York friends she made through neighborhood groups, peppery political discussions, and visits from family and out-of-town friends.
Joanna is survived by nephew Jeff Slesinger and wife Cynthia Wold of Edmonds, Wash., nephew Paul Slesinger and wife Margaret Bradbury of Larchmont, N.Y., and Marilyn Slesinger, wife of the late David Slesinger, of Virginia Beach, Va.; cousins Peter Davis of Castine, Maine and Jane Davis of Mountain View, Calif.; and stepchildren Peter Caproni of Portsmouth, R.I., Carol Caproni Hartley of Richmond Hill, Ga., and Leo F. Caproni III of Arlington, Wash., as well as 10 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
She was predeceased by her nephew David Slesinger.
The family is grateful for the care and kindness of the employees of the Newport East apartment building, where Joanna lived for 60 years.
Donations in Joanna’s memory may be made to the Truro Historical Society.
In lieu of a memorial service, Joanna’s ashes will be scattered at a private family gathering.
