Joan M Biront

Joan Mary Biront, 92, of Philadelphia, formerly of Queensland, Australia, longtime bedside and surgical registered nurse, midwife, and community volunteer, died Friday, April 3, of complications from Parkinson’s disease at her home in Germantown.

Born in Woodford, Queensland, Australia, on Oct. 20, 1933. She grew up with three brothers and two sisters on a banana plantation in Australia, and told stories to her sons about reading by a kerosene lamp and learning in a one-room schoolhouse.

Mrs. Biront arrived in Philadelphia in 1959, when she was 26, as part of an international nurses exchange program. She settled in Germantown in the early 1960s and, for nearly two decades, worked as a bedside nurse at Woman’s Medical College Hospital, Temple University Hospital, Children’s Hospital, and Graduate Hospital.

She met Philip Biront in Philadelphia when she rented a place from his family, and they married in 1961. They lived in Germantown and had sons Andrew and Michael. Her husband died in 2011.

At each place, from attending to stricken children at CHOP to meeting injured Eagles football players at Graduate, Mrs. Biront shared her medical expertise, energy, and compassion with fellow nurses, doctors, patients, and families.

In 1976, she left Graduate to work in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania. Later, she joined the American Society of Plastic Surgical Nurses and assisted renowned craniofacial surgeon Linton Whitaker and other reconstructive surgeons in the operating room until 1993.

She also counseled expectant families as a midwife in Australia and the United States. Even after her official retirement, Mrs. Biront worked part-time with elderly patients at a nearby nursing home.

“She cared for people,” said her son and caregiver Andrew. “She was so kind.”

Before Philadelphia, on the other side of the world, Mrs. Biront graduated from the School of Nursing, Midwifery, and Social Sciences at what is now Central Queensland University in Rockhampton, Australia. She trained at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Victoria, Australia, and completed continuing education programs later in Philadelphia.

Away from her patients, she raised funds for nursing homes and the elderly in the United States and Australia through programs with the Daughters of the British Empire. In Fairmount Park, she volunteered at the historical Ormiston Mansion.

She also saw her first opera in Australia and forever after played records of her favorite performances.

Mrs. Biront was witty and social, and she met writer and humanitarian Pearl Buck and spent Thanksgiving dinner one year with Grace Kelly’s parents. She traveled back to Australia several times to see family and friends, and visited the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston with her son Andrew.

She doted on her grandsons and enjoyed lounging with her dogs and reading for hours. One of her favorite sayings was “never take yourself too seriously.”

“She was very friendly, disarming,” said her son Andrew. “She had a loving heart, and everyone who met her liked her. She was a sweetheart.”

In addition to her sons, Mrs. Biront is survived by two grandsons, two brothers, and other relatives. Her sisters and a brother died earlier.

Services are to be held later.

Donations in her name may be made to the Pennsylvania SPCA, 350 E. Erie Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19134.

To see the full story with pictures visit Joan Mary Biront, longtime registered nurse, midwife, and volunteer, has died at 92

Arrangements entrusted to Szpindor-Meyers Funeral Home, P.C.

Condolences may be made by visiting www.meyersfh.com