Joyce Freeland Kemp

Joyce had a full and rich life, starting with her birth during the Depression on April 30, 1935 in Portland, Tennessee, the small country town where she grew up. After her father’s death when she was young, she was privileged to be raised by her amazing single mother Helen, and an incredible squad of grandmothers and aunts, especially, Hilda, Eunice, and Georgia. (Diddie, Mama Eunice, and Mama Georgie, respectively).

She loved her childhood in the small town, and grew to become a basketball star and runner-up as Strawberry Festival Queen. Close, lifelong relationships with her friends and cousins from Portland extended to the very end.

Upon reaching young adulthood, she moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky to work at Holley Carburetor and go to secretarial school. One day she saw a tall, handsome, well-dressed man walking by the town square and was convinced she needed to meet this man. It was not too long before she met him and was married to Billy Kemp, and thus began their wonderful 6 decades together. As Bill moved up the corporate ladder with Johnson and Johnson, they moved frequently, and raised us, their children.

Everywhere she went, she made lifelong friends, people who to this day say that she was the best friend they ever had. From Jackson, Mississippi, to Houston, to Somerville, New Jersey to Cincinnati to Atlanta, to Dallas, to Orange County, California, to Memphis, and finally, back to Dallas, she made friends, and made an incredibly happy home for her family.

In particular, the friends she made in Dallas, as a group of Girl Scout leaders in the 70’s, the “therapy group” were an essential and life-giving force for her.

We, Scott and Kathy, her children, were blessed to be a part of this great, and for us, formative, life journey.

Along the way she had many roles: Cub Scout Den Mother, Girl Scout Leader, employee at Texas Flagpoles and travel agent with Time to Travel, bowling team member, country club golfer, a capella group singer, and all along, the best Mom and Grandma a person could want.

She loved music, a fine pastry, a vodka martini, dachshunds, word games, South Padre Island, Hallmark movies, and watching golf and “Jeopardy” on TV. She was a great Southern cook, learning at the feet of the masters when she was a girl. Her incredible fried chicken, cornbread stuffing, fried cabbage and bacon, and incomparable chess pie all had deliciousness that future generations ahead will never know.

All along, she was sustained by her Christian faith nurtured in the small Methodist church in Portland, and at the end, the amazing community she was part of at Spring Valley United Methodist Church. It is hard to put in words how important the people at this church have been to her, especially the last 10 years since her Bill died. Scott and Kathy will be forever thankful that she was a part of this faith community.

But, her greatest joy and the greatest joy of her entire life, was her grandchildren. Grandma, or “Grams”, adored these children, every step of the way as they grew to adulthood. Janey, Abby, Katy, Patrick, and Mary Beth were the loves of her life and she cherished every moment spent with them. They may never realize just how much she loved them, thought about them, and how incredibly proud she was of all of them.

Joyce was preceded in death by her husband Bill Kemp, her father Fred Freeland, her mother Helen Freeland Wilkinson, and her step-father Harold Wilkinson. She is survived by her son Scott Kemp (wife Sharon) and daughter Kathy (Kemp) Hopkins (husband Roger), and grandchildren Janey (Kemp) Cragin (husband Collin), Abby (Kemp) Bedenkop (husband Nick), Mary Beth Kemp, Katy Hopkins, and Patrick Hopkins. She is also survived by her beloved step-brothers Larry Wilkinson (wife Janice), and Charles Wilkinson, and her in-laws, Mary (Kemp) Foster (husband Don), and Jim Kemp, D.D.S, (wife Ellen).

A memorial of her life will be held at Spring Valley United Methodist Church with on Saturday March 27 at 10 AM. The service will be live streamed on the church website at www.svumc.org. It will be on the “See and Hear” choice under “In Memoriam”.

In lieu of flowers, donations in her honor can be made to Spring Valley United Methodist Church, 7700 Spring Valley Rd., Dallas, TX 75254, 972-233-7671.