05/05/2025
Voted “Miss Personality” of Putnam County in 1937, Joyce S. still has the trophy to show for her beautiful dark curls and dimpled smile.
Now in her ninth decade, this beautiful gal agrees that her life story is a testament to tenacity and faith.
Born to Bill and Louella (“Babe”) U., Joyce shares that her entrance into the world was marked by drama. Her mother, in the throes of a difficult labor, recalled the doctor saying, “I don’t think I can save mom or baby.” Luckily, he performed a C-Section, and both survived.
Joyce quickly became her father’s helper. Her younger sister, born six years later, helped their mother with household chores.
In retrospect, Joyce feels her dad taught her a great deal about how to weather life’s challenges. In one instance, the local veterinarian drove up and proceeded to wring the necks of all 200 of their chickens. A bird flu outbreak required all local flocks be eliminated. “Dad never let on how devastating this was for us financially.”
During WWII, Joyce was one of countless women who took on difficult jobs. As lumber and nails were scarce, she helped tear down buildings to procure wood for other projects. At twelve, she knew to be careful to straighten the nails for reuse.
From milking, to sundry other jobs like planting and harvesting, Joyce worked alongside her dad, driving heavy equipment and baling.
Joyce attended school in nearby Glandorf. She recalls the family took on “spinster” teachers as boarders.
The family household was multigenerational. Her grandmother and two aunts lived with them -and alongside “Babe,” taught a young Joyce about grit and grace.
Joyce has fond memories of the nuns at school. She laughs when she remembers that her dad would occasionally drop off beer for them. Years later, some of the nuns even accompanied Joyce on a trip out west.
Her most vivid childhood memories involve epic family reunions. Her grandmother was one of three sisters who married three brothers. For the large, day-long gatherings, an expanse of land was cleared, food was prepared and carried in, and a fiddler led square and polka dances in the main house. Parents laughed and visited as children ran, played games, and stuffed themselves with her dad’s prized contribution: ten gallons of homemade ice cream.
After high school Joyce took a job working for Frank S., a local grocer, as a bookkeeper.
At a Hard Times dance, she caught the eye of Marcellibus “Marcie” W., a handsome Continental boy. Married at St. John’s, at the tender ages of seventeen and twenty, the couple honeymooned in the Alleghenies -and returned home to Marcie’s draft notice. Joyce continued working as a clerk -and Marcie found a job as in the poultry industry before heading to Fort Eustis in Newport News, Virginia. Marcie was granted furlough to return for the birth of their daughter. Soon after, the military family headed out east and began the process of procuring off-base housing. With a colicky baby, the couple found it was to rent. Ultimately Joyce and baby settled in with her parents back home.
Joyce took a job at Kresge’s in Lima. Once Marcie returned, he earned certification as a butcher. The couple was blessed with four more daughters. Joyce was a busy mom of five.
Ultimately, the loss of that marriage, followed by Marcie’s death a few years later, required that Joyce channel the protective instincts and work ethic modeled by her father. Like the women who helped raise her, Joyce acted wisely and courageously.
She was a pioneer in that she sought work at GM, a job she held until retirement. During the Blizzard of ‘78, she arrived before the storm. She recalls having to sleep on the cold cement floor for the duration of that weather event.
Always, Joyce was a mother who strove to provide stability and joy for her daughters, attending functions and camping with them. All grew to become strong, successful women.
A second marriage to a GM worker Claude R. brought stability -but delivered widowhood after eight short years.
In her early fifties, Joyce set about rebooting her life. It was while staying at a wellness resort in California that she decided write to her first employer, Frank S. She thanked him for being so kind and encouraging to her all those years ago.
Joyce pauses and blushes as she adds that she might have dabbed a little perfume on on that handwritten note before dropping it in the mail.
That letter set into dizzying motion a series of happy memories. Frank S. phoned her, met her at the airport, and in short order, broached the idea of marriage.
To win over Joyce’s daughters, Frank sat Indian style in the center of a room as he they interrogated him. Everyone agreed that the two lovebirds definitely deserved their own happy ending.
In his youth, Frank had been a Czechoslovakian dancer turned laborer turned entrepreneur who settled here. He had made a name for himself as both a businessman and master gardener. In his native Communist country, flowers were a rare indulgence, so Frank valued their aesthetic.
Once married, Frank and Joyce enjoyed a six-week honeymoon in Europe. Joyce shares that she became so homesick to hear English spoken, she insisted they return to the states.
After living and volunteering in Monticello, Kentucky, the couple returned to this area, gutting and restoring a house and enjoying Joyce’s many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Frank’s incredible flower gardens were featured in a local news story. To Joyce those blossoms were a metaphor for their thriving marriage.
After fifteen years, her sweet husband passed. “Those were HAPPY years.”
Looking back over her life, Joyce is grateful for it all. She feels blessed to have experienced a great love story.
She’s proud of her large family -and indebted to her Catholic faith which has steadied and guided her.
Her title now might well be “Miss Tranquility,” as she lives each day smiling and sharing her kind heart and gentle resolve.
This time, though, her trophy is intangible and greater than any statue. It is both the love that she generously bequeaths and upon which she is abundantly bestowed.
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