The Life of an Exemplary Human Being
Joyce was born in Riverside, California, July 12, 1937, and as her dad, Jack Grif-fith used to say,“Under the Mother Orange Tree”. Joyce’s mom, Martha Fisher Griffith, never liked that designation, as to her it was unseemly that she was to have been birthed in an open field. Joyce is a product of a typical American family, a father of Irish decent, County Cork, born in North Carolina and a mother, a Mexican, from Mira Flores, Baja California, who became a Naturalized Citizen. Joyce is a first generation American.
Joyce primarily grew up in Long Beach, California where she went to elementary, junior high and high school. Joyce was a student leader and her pleasant personality and kind ways endeared her to her many friends and acquaintances over the years. She was the editor of the Woodrow Wilson High School yearbook, the Campanile, for her Class of 1955. She was a member of SFO, Ming, a service sorority; a Crump Sister, a group of three friends that performed song and dance at various school venues. She was a Flag Girl in the marching band and with all these activities managed to make the required grades to be admitted to Long Beach State College as an Elementary Edu-cation major in 1955.
She met her future husband, Jon Duckett Champeny, in their junior year at Wil-son High when they were seventeen. After graduation, Jon went off to University of California, Santa Barbara College in 1955. At Long Beach State, Joyce joined the Gamma Kappa Chapter of Alpha Phi with many of her high school friends. After one year of long-range romance, Joyce transferred to Santa Barbara and joined the Gamma Beta Chapter of Alpha Phi and completed her Elementary Education B. A. in 1959.
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oyce and Jon were married August 31, 1957 as 20 year olds in Long Beach. Jon had to get his parent permission as he was not of age. Thus, began a journey of love, adventure and family comprised ultimately of twenty moves. During summers, Joyce worked as a credit advisor at Sears. Her student teaching time was with first graders, one of which was the son of one of Jon’s geology professors. We got to know them well because of both our relationships and corresponded for decades until their deaths.
Joyce was always a serious student but after marriage she applied herself even more. She overcame Jon’s constant interruptions which did her well in dealing with elementary school children and her own children. She had the temperament of a steady, unflappable, focused and affable adult female. After graduating UCSB with a B A degree in Elementary Education, Joyce got a job as a Fifth Grade Teacher at La Tije-ra Elementary in Inglewood, California supporting her husband as he studied at UCLA to get a Master’s degree in geology, a requirement to get a job. Joyce became pregnant and delivered a baby boy at seven months in December, 1960 but the premature sepa-ration of her placenta was too much for the child to survive. This event focused Joyce strongly to achieve motherhood but it took five years, a move to Texas and the adop-tion of our son, Rusty, to bring this about.
Prior to these events, Joyce’s attention focused on teaching her students. She worked every evening on lesson plans and projects to enhance the education of her Fifth Graders. After Jon’s graduate degree was completed in 1961, Joyce and Jon em-barked to Corpus Christi, TX for Jon’s new job with Humble Oil & Refining Company. Soon after arrival in Corpus, the Caller Times interviewed this new California couple for a human interest piece. The net result was that Joyce got a call from the principle of the nearby elementary school with a job offer. She took the job as a Fifth Grade teacher at Parkdale Elementary which required her to complete certification with a Texas history course which she achieved by going to Community College at night while teaching during the day. While in Corpus, Joyce had to have a boat so we could waterski and enjoy all the empty spaces of Corpus Christi Bay and Laguna Madre. Joyce was a master boat handler and an excellent slalom water skier.
In 1965 Joyce and Jon adopted their son Rusty. Fifteen months later, in 1966, our daughter, Suzee, came into the World naturally. Both children born at Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi. Thus began Joyce’s journey of being a mother of two who were separated by only 15 months.
Subsequently, with Jon’s transfer to Kingsville, Joyce and Jon made their seventh move. In Kingsville, Joyce endured the eye and the rain of Hurricane Beulah, field mice by the dozen in the kitchen and a skunk in the garage. Next, it was on to Hobbs, NM for about two years. While in Hobbs, Joyce sewed and made her children’s fancy dress clothes and took care of the guinea pigs and the fish that the kids had to have. Suzee was too young for the Mother’s Day Out program but Joyce cajoled the leader-ship to trust Rusty to take his little sister to the toilet on a timely basis so they didn’t need to worry about this two and half year old. They agreed. During a nine month assignment in Midland, TX, Joyce enrolled her children in Holy Trinity Episcopal Church Preschool. Amazingly, we qualified for financial assistance and Joyce was the only mother that picked up her own kids from school each day. The other children were either picked up by a nannie or a chauffeur. In 1971 a transfer to Houston oc-curred and Joyce again packed the kids and moved to Houston on her own because Jon was already on the job. This was not a problem as she had done it twice before. Joyce also negotiated our Midland house sale to include our crazy little collie-poo dog as a condition for sale as the dog was ADHD. Suzee noticed the dog was not with them half way to Houston and Joyce explained that the young couple who bought our house had no children and loved the dog so much that she let them have it as part of the sale. Both kids accepted that logic. Although, Suzee maintains to this day that she and Rusty are the only kids in history whose mother gave away their family pet.
In Houston, we lived in Ponderosa Forest where for two years Joyce and the kids made life long friends. Joyce was the procurer of rats to feed the snake that the kids had in an aquarium. Joyce and Jon were original members of St. Dunstan’s Epis-copal Church where Jon became a Warden and Joyce was active in the Daughters of the King. In 1973, Joyce was again faced with a move; this time across the Atlantic to London; the children were 7 and 8. Joyce had to negotiate the British education sys-tem including a private girls school for Suzee which she deemed too strict for her daughter and soon put both kids in a British government school with uniforms and formal shirts and ties. Joyce was apprised by Jon at the Hotel where we first stayed, in Shepperton, before we found a place to live, that she had two choices; she could stay in the hotel all day or just get in the car and start driving “on the wrong side of the road”. She chose the latter and got her British drivers license well before Jon and to this day has a life time license, which they gave at that time. Joyce became a Girl Scout leader and took her brood to activities and camping around London. These were the days that the IRA was active with violent terrorism and Joyce was constant-ly vigilant in protecting her girls.
Joyce subsequently had her children enrolled in the American Community School in Wimbledon and then in a move from Weybridge to Cobham, she enrolled them at ACS Cobham where they stayed until the family returned to the United States in 1977.
Joyce began a love of needle point work and did many projects over the three and a half years in London. Joyce planned many trips and excursions in England, France, Germany, Spain and the Mediterranean where in Tunisia she rode a camel to a Bedouin camp. Jon was unnerved on this occasion. Also included was visiting Nor-mandy and the Bayeux Tapestry, a portion of which she made a copy. In addition, she started collecting Waterford crystal, various Spode china patterns and British antique furniture. She learned where the second shops were on London’s East Side as well as where the best antique bargains were located and drove her Austin Maxi all over Lon-don to achieve her collecting goals.
When the family moved back to Houston, we returned to our first Ponderosa Forest house, which was rented out while we lived in London. The kids were Junior High by that time and Joyce decided to return to teaching which she did at Ponderosa Elementary teaching Second and ultimately Fifth grade. As testimony for Joyce’s empathy for children, is this note from one of Suzee’s friend’s younger brother, “It was 5th grade and I was new to Houston and it was a big change for me. Our 5th grade class was split between several teachers, and your mom was one of them. She saw that I was lost in general and that I was scared. She pulled me aside and said don’t worry, everyone is glad to have me, and I would make friends before I knew it. Of course she was right. It was really thoughtful of her. It was even nicer for her to see that some kid she didn’t know was stressed out.” This from a fifty year old male who remembers vividly the kindness he was shown by his fifth grade teacher. Joyce taught school for about a total of 16 years.
Bridge became an avid interest for Joyce during this time and she started a regu-lar couples group. Of course, she always had to have a substitute ready because Jon, many times, didn’t make it because of some crisis in Africa or Thailand. The family enjoyed their weekend place on Lake Conroe and sailed their Catalina 22 and fished and skied behind the Boston Whaler. Sailing in the Catalina 22 is only time in her life that Joyce used typical sailor language; the S word would occasionally slip out when a vigorous gust of wind would heal the boat over to the extreme. After Rusty and Suzee graduated Westfield High School they both enrolled at The University of Texas in Aus-tin. In 1984, at the same time, Jon was made Director of Exploration with Esso Norge and Joyce was forced to leave her babies in Texas as she and Jon moved to Stavanger, Norway. It was a trauma for her and she insisted that the kids call us every Sunday evening together on a speaker phone so she could keep up with her children. Joyce embarked on learning Norwegian and the local artisanal endeavor of Rosemaling. She was an active member of the Expat Wives organization and took an ice driving class to learn how to negotiate the Norwegian roads during the Winter. She never had an accident. In addition to taking up cross country skiing, Joyce spent time trav-eling in England, Europe and Norway while Jon was ensconced in the Esso offices in Forus or Harstad.
In 1986, as is the case in the oil business, Joyce and Jon returned to Houston where Jon was made Ventures Manager for Exxon Company International responsible for new ventures and exploration programs Worldwide. Joyce immediately settled in with activities in Houston. She was President of GeoWives, an auxiliary to the Hou-ston Geologic Society. During the next few years, Joyce was the President of the Woodstone III Home Owner’s Association and made many new friends in the process. Joyce took in her mother to live with us at this time. She was not easy to live with and had congestive heart failure. Joyce cared for her including all her finances until her mother moved to Buckner Haven nearby where she subsequently died. As usual, Joyce handled this situation with love and grace.
Opportunities arose for Joyce to accompany Jon on several business trips which included taking the Chairman of Exxon and his wife to China and staying in the Di-aoyutai guest house in Beijing where President Nixon stayed when he opened formal diplomatic relations with the Peoples Republic of China. In Beijing, when the Chinese found out Joyce was a teacher, they took her to a special elementary school where the children sang to her in English. Joyce also participated in visiting operations in Thai-land, Singapore, Indonesia and Pakistan. While in Bangkok, in 1983, a Coup d’etat by the Military occurred which required folks to hole up in their hotel rooms. Joyce would have none of that as the Oriental Hotel was near the shops and soon she was out on the streets shopping along with soldiers, tanks and other military equipment roaming the streets. Our local Esso Thailand manager was extremely disconcerted by her disregard for the curfew. She came home with new snake skin shoes, raw silk scarves, pillow covers and some jewelry; Joyce, a true woman of adventure shopping.
In early March 1993, Joyce flew to California to be with her dad who was critical-ly ill. She took the time to visit Jon’s dad who was in hospice. Joyce was there when both our fathers died within five days of each other.
In April 1993, Jon retired from Exxon Exploration Company and Joyce and Jon moved to Lakeway, TX. Joyce loved the water and she made sure her house was on Lake Travis. We brought the sail boat from Houston but soon Joyce decided she need-ed a ski boat. One afternoon Jon got a call from Joyce to come down to our dock as she had just bought a ski boat and the dealer was delivering it now. Joyce, was a woman of determination and ingenuity. Jon never had a chance in this deal. Plus, ac-cording to Joyce, we didn't have to pay the one dollar toll to take the ferry from the Marina to the restaurant across the Lake. At this rate, this boat investment would pay out in about one thousand years. We, our kids and grandkids enjoyed the boat until we moved to Querencia at Barton Creek in 2010.
The main reason we moved to Austin was because Suzee and our son-in-law, Greg, produced Zoey in 1991. They had a house in Central Austin and we provided baby sitting services over the years. Our grandson, Trevor, appeared in 1993 just as we were moving to Austin. Joyce and Jon enjoyed many years interacting with our grand kids. Jon would occasionally say after being with the grand kids "I don't re-member our kids doing this or that" and Joyce would reply, " Well yeah, they did the same things; you just weren't here to notice". True, most of the time Jon was else-where. Joyce raised her children essentially by herself. Never missed a beat and nev-er thought that this was an exceptional undertaking. Joyce did what was required to raise her children and make sure they were afforded the best available for education and play. Joyce was a true oil business wife.
While living in Lakeway, Joyce started our community involvement by joining the Newcomer's Club. Soon thereafter she started a women’s investment club and made arrangements for a local stock broker to give lectures and facilitate trades. The Club members did all the research on individual stocks and then they decided if they wanted to invest and how much. Joyce always had a positive return during these years.
Soon Joyce joined the Women's Club of Greater Lakeway and through the estab-lished process of becoming an officer she ultimately became the President of this or-ganization of some 500 women. Joyce is an original member of the Bellini Babes an ad hoc group of eleven Lakeway gals that gathered at Rocco’s Grill the afternoon Joyce was installed as President. It was Happy Hour and Bellinis were on special. One of the gals suggested they call themselves the Bellini Babes since they were drinking Bel-linis. The name stuck and this group has met for birthdays and anniversaries for some sixteen years of fun and frivolity.
In the late 90's, Joyce turned her enthusiasm to politics and was President of Lake Travis Republican Women for about four years. This included supporting and working for George W. Bush as Governor and as Presidential candidate in 2000. She and Jon traveled to Washington D. C. to participate in GW's inauguration including all the activities and balls.
All this time, Joyce was volunteering at the Lake Travis Community Library, mentoring kids with reading disabilities, helping with the small children activities and doing the usual tasks of a library helper. Joyce loved the Library so much that she contributed the total sum of her personal IRA to the building fund of the present Library on Lohman’s Crossing Road. Her generosity is noted on the entrance plaque and the Teen Room bears her name.
With all these activities going on, Joyce found time to learn to paint in a variety of media and joined the Lakeway Painters. She eventually worked in oil, acrylics, pastels and other mediums. Her pursuit of painting took her to West Texas, Taos and Mexico with fellow painters to learn new techniques and media. She especially en-joyed water colors which she learned from Johnny Fields, a well known architect and water color artist. Joyce continued her needle point, was a member of several book clubs and threw herself into bridge which ultimately included four regular couples duplicate groups. In addition, Joyce was the leader of the Women's Nine Hole group in Lakeway and at The Hills Country Club. She was always one of the best teammates in scrambles as she was a fearless chipper and putter. There have been multiple occa-sions where she would easily make chips for birdie or can a thirty-footer for a red fig-ure.
Joyce and Jon built their dream home at 1023 Challenger in Lakeway during 1997 and 1998. This Robert Jackson designed home had every convenience that Joyce de-manded and was designed to be her home forever. Alas, it was not to be as Joyce de-veloped symptoms of dementia and subsequently was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. She continued to be active in her painting and bridge activities as well as driving her BMW. In 2010 Joyce and Jon moved to Querencia at Barton Creek so they could be prepared for what was to come. After about six years of enjoying her Villa and other activities she had been doing, Alzheimer’s made it too difficult to concen-trate and contribute to these endeavors. Joyce began a two-year decline into more severe dementia and on June 27, 2018 moved to the Memory Support Unit at Queren-cia. The nurses have said that Joyce settled in better than anyone in their experience. This is another testament to the loving, smiling face of a beautiful, lovely woman, wife, mother, grandmother and friend to all that continues today with the remem-brance of her sweet nature and constant empathy to all around her.
Joyce died peacefully, Wednesday, December 23, 2020 at 7:50AM. The Querencia Memory Support nurses were with her at her last breath. At least Suzee and I had a chance to lay eyes on her via FaceTime and tell her we loved her. Her decline was rapid as she was tested positive for COVID-19 on December 14th. She never com-plained. From a quality of life, aspect, she won't have to endure a long slow further decline with the ravages of Alzheimer's.
Joyce Ann Griffith Champeny, a truly exceptional human being, is now with the Lord.
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