Joyce Deegan

Billie Joyce Driver was born April 2, 1932 to Luella and Dennis Driver. Luella taught class at a college and Dennis was an electrician during the depression era. Joyce was there first born. She was the first of two children. Two year later her brother, Joseph was born. Joyce and Joe were very close. Because of a severe case of asthma, Joyce fell back in school and was in the same class as Joe.

Because Joyce’s mother had a long term illness and her father was often traveling for work, she lived with her aunts. At one point, Joyce and Joe were living separately. Joe started doing poorly in school. They were reunited and she helped Joe along with neighborhood friends with their schoolwork by organizing a study group. Joe started doing better in school especially since he would sit behind Joyce and she would provide answers to him in code during tests.

After high school, Joyce attended school at the Baptist Memorial Hospital Nursing School in Memphis, Tennessee from 1952 to 1955. There she met other nurses and they became lifelong friends. In her yearbook it was written that Joyce Driver is a thing of beauty and will be a joy forever. Her fellow students thought of her as a perfectionist when it came to nursing care. She graduated and became a registered nurse.

After graduating she met Eddie Deegan at a USO dance and later they were married. They lived in New York City for a couple of years. During that time they had their first son, Tom Deegan. Her husband finished school graduating with a degree in electrical engineering. After Eddie received a job offer in California, they moved to Los Angeles.

After two years Joyce and her family moved to Maryland permanently. Joyce had two more children, Michael and Mark. While raising her family, she worked part time at Washington Seventh Day Adventist Hospital and Holy Cross Hospital. She was greatly respected by the other nurses and they looked to her for leadership.

She ended her nursing career as a private duty nurse working until she was in her seventies. She also studied real estate and became an agent and then a broker.

She has three sons and two grandsons, David and Kenta, one granddaughter, Amber, and one great granddaughter, Annabell.

Last year, Joyce had trouble breathing and went to the hospital. There she was diagnosed with cancer with an unknown origin and it had spread to her lung cavity. She received chemo therapy and while it helped in some ways, ultimately the chemo could not stay the cancer. She died on July 20th, 2018.