Iconic reporter Joyce Vanaman dies at 89

Joyce Vanaman, a legendary journalist who spent 45 years with the Press of Atlantic City, passed away on January 10.  She was 89.

One former colleague said she was known as the “Velvet Steamroller.”

“She was sweet but tough,” former reporter Eileen Tedesco Bennett told The Press.  “She was so polite I never heard her lose her temper or say a mean word to anyone.”

Vanaman worked out of the Cumberland bureau, where she provided top-to-bottom coverage of Millville and neighboring municipalities.

Cumberland County freeholder Jim Quinn, a former mayor of Millville, called Vanaman his “adopted mother” in a post on his Facebook page.

“She was very special in my life and in the lives of many other people throughout the area,” Quinn said.  “Joyce was a talented newspaper columnist and reporter who touched so many lives in a very positive way in South Jersey.

The Press wrote an obituary of their former colleague that is worth the read: 

https://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cumberland/joyce-vanaman-beloved-millville-reporter-dies-at/article_562b438c-06d7-5afd-985e-d1c61a33f96f.html