Joanna (Osif) Bartos

Joanna H. (Osif) Bartos, 79, of Endwell, N.Y., passed away peacefully on December 2, 2024. Born to shoe factory workers, John and Anna (Badanko) Osif, she grew up in a three-room house with her loving older sister, Rosemarie (Natario) on Wren St, in Johnson City. Joanna fondly spoke of playing in the woods on Carpathian Hills, picking berries and mushrooms, swinging on grapevines, and wandering through the fields of bluets. She was a self-proclaimed tomboy.
A graduate of Johnson City High School (1963), Joanna earned a BA in Russian Language and Literature, a Master of Teaching, and an MA in Comparative Literature from Harper College (now Binghamton University). She dedicated 33 years to teaching at Vestal Central School District, where she chaired the English department before teaching Russian in 1983. She cherished her students, saying, “I love my students and love getting them to enjoy learning. They keep my going.” Joanna also fostered cross-cultural understanding through a decade-long Russian exchange program during the Cold War, forming a lifelong friendship with Russian educator Margarita Prokofyeva.
Although Joanna mentored and inspired many of her students, her greatest joy and accomplishment was her family. She and her beloved husband of 50 years, Lewis Bartos, raised two children, Carrie Rutkowski (Joe) and Stephen Bartos (Amy Sullivan). She was blessed with four grandchildren: Adam and Ashlynn Rutkowski (Newark Valley, NY) and Sam and Henry Bartos (Marietta, GA) who she loved more than anything in the world. Joanna deeply missed her beloved sister over the past three years, but greatly cherished her relationships with her nieces and nephews.
Joanna was passionate about her Carpathian Rusyn heritage. She was a member of the Holy Spirit Byzantine Catholic Church, a choir singer, and a dancer with the Czechoslovakian Moravian Club. She was multilingual, loved to travel and experience the joy of diverse cultures and food. She often referred to herself as a huge “foodie.” A prolific reader and lover of classic literature, Joanna later embraced painting, capturing the beauty of nature in all her artwork. She was an adamant supporter of local businesses, especially in the Southern Tier. Later in life she enjoyed her second home, a cottage on Cayuga Lake, surrounded by the nature and the tranquility she loved. She was thankful for all she had and was able to overcome in life, her lifelong friends, but most of all, her family.
Funeral Services will be held 10 am December 9 at Holy Spirit Byzantine Catholic Church, 360 Clinton Street, Binghamton. Burial will be in the parish cemetery. The family will receive friends at the Allen Memorial Home, 511–513 East Main Street, Endicott, Sunday, December 8 from 4 to 6 pm.
As Joanna was a cancer survivor and in lieu of flowers, kindly consider contributing to the American Cancer Society or St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in her indelible memory and spirit.
https://donate.cancer.org/
https://www.stjude.org/