Joyce R. LeRoy

Joyce R. LeRoy, 87, long time resident of Kingwood, Texas, passed away January 1, 2020. Born in Jefferson County, Colorado on April 1, 1932, she was the youngest daughter of John R. and Julia C. Hall. During her early years Joyce spent half her life and education traveling between the Fairmont School in Jefferson County, Colorado and schools in the Rio Grande Valley area of South Texas. She graduated from Golden High School in 1950 and was recognized for her academic excellence with membership in the National Honor Society. She also received the Senior Watch from local businesses for achieving the highest GPA among senior girls. During high school Joyce worked for the Golden Light and Power Company as a bookkeeper.

After graduation, she received several opportunities to attend some of Colorado's finest universities but instead, she chose to remain in the Golden area where she could continue to care for her aging parents. Joyce soon left the Light and Power Company and accepted the position of secretary to the Head of the Geology Department at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. Little did she now that this step would lead to bigger and better job opportunities in the future.

In 1953 she married her high school sweetheart Duane O. LeRoy in the First Baptist Church of Golden, Colorado. Soon the young couple left for Boulder, Colorado and the University of Colorado where she attended classes for a short time before being offered and accepting the position of secretary to the Director of the National Bureau of Standards. After her husband's graduation from CU in 1956 with a BA in geology and a year of Post-Grad studies, Joyce and Duane moved from Boulder to Houston, Texas, where she was employed by the San Jacinto Oil & Gas Company as secretary to the Drilling Superintendent. Her husband was employed by the Humble Oil & Refining Company as a Junior Geologist at Humble's Geologic Research Center. Nineteen sixty-one was a banner year for Joyce as she and her husband were transferred to New Orleans, Louisiana, with Humble Oil and their son was born. They lived there for the next six years during which time their daughter appeared on the scene.

Returning to Houston in 1967 and living in the southwest Houston area where the better schools were supposed to be at that time Joyce became a home teacher, helping her children for their homework and activities. As the children grew older and were in school longer she decided it was time to return to work. Having studied music and then organ with Francis Clark, in New Orleans, she went to work for the Miller Piano and Organ Company as both a music teacher and salesperson. When her husband's employer, Exxon, moved the company offices from downtown Houston to the Greenspoint area she and Duane moved to the Kingwood area. She worked for AJ's Piano Co., and subsequently taught piano and organ

lessons to both children and adults in the Kingwood area. During this time Joyce was very active in various music related organizations such as the: National Guild of Piano Teachers where she was Chairman, Kingwood Music Teachers Association; Texas Music Teachers Association; and the American College of Musicians.

Her first grandchild was born in 1985, her second in 1987, the third in 1988, and the last in 1991. She was instrumental in raising and providing nurturing strength to all the grandchildren living in the Kingwood area including their scholastic studies from kindergarten through middle school. Joyce was a kind and gentle person who dearly loved all her grandchildren. To them she was first, a grandmother and second, a music and school teacher, who always gave them the strength to succeed and never let them down. God Bless All Grandmothers.

Joyce was never a person who could relax; she was always "on the go". When she was finished with one chore she would bounce to something else but she would always finish whatever she was doing. Nothing was left undone. In the evenings when all the work of the day had been completed she could be found in the music room playing either the piano or the organ and sometimes even the hammered dulcimer. Those moments when she did "ease off" she liked to make dried flower arrangements for the house, take care of the yard by pruning plants or raking leaves and gum balls, walking the trails of Kingwood or hiking in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee were two of her favorite pastimes-bears or no bears.

After her retirement from music teaching in 1991 she was always the first one up in the mornings with the following question "What are we going to do today?" For the next eight years Joyce and her husband began to take cruises, automobile and bus trips. No port-of-call throughout the Caribbean, West Indies, northern South America, Central America, Mexican Riviera, Alaska, and Hawaii were left untouched by this awesome pair. Bus and automobile trips through the desert southwest and the beautiful Canadian Rockies made their "tripping" complete.

Joyce was raised, baptized, and married in the First Baptist Church in Golden, CO., In 1960, she joined the Canal Street Presbyterian Church in New Orleans where she taught Sunday School and became Chairman of the Nursery Department. When she returned to Houston in 1967, she joined the St. Paul Presbyterian Church where she taught in the Pre-School Division. Later, Joyce and Duane transferred their membership to Braeburn Presbyterian Church. Here, Joyce played the organ, taught Sunday school, and became Chairman of the Nursery Department. In 1980, the LeRoy's moved to Kingwood and became members of the First Presbyterian Church of Kingwood. Joyce's ashes will be inurned in the Columbarium at the Kingwood Church.

Joyce will be missed by everyone who knew and loved her. She leaves behind her husband Duane LeRoy of Kingwood, TX.; her son Gregory (Michelle) LeRoy of Oakland, CA.; her daughter Gayle (Paul) Krakowiak of Kingwood, TX.; granddaughter Jennifer Krakowiak of Kingwood, TX.; grandson Jason (Jenn) Krakowiak of Olallo, WA.; great granddaughter Britta Krakowiak of Olallo, WA.; Joshua Krakowiak (Chelsea) of League City, TX.; yet to be born great granddaughter Emma of League City, TX.; and grandson Brian LeRoy of Portland, OR.; two nieces and three nephews from the Denver, CO area.