Joyce Wales

Joyce Wales was a woman who appreciated her place in the world, and appreciated the people who came before her. She loved her family history, heritage and heirlooms, and her collection of antiques was a walk through history. Joyce was a woman who believed in celebrating legacies. Today her legacy, and her love, lives on in all who knew her.

Joyce’s story began on a hot summer day in 1915, in the little town of Augusta, Michigan. Those were anxious times in this country, which was undergoing the dramatic changes of the automobile and the airplane, and watched as the world went to war. Yet on August 22, 1915, William Harley and Hazel (Beckley) Miller found a reason to celebrate, with the birth of a beautiful baby girl, a daughter they named Joyce.

Joyce grew up with her close-knit family in the Augusta-Richland area, not far from Kalamazoo, where her dad operated successful farms. Joyce earned her impressive work ethic on that farm as a child, and as a reward her dad would take her fishing with him on Gogolak Lake. Joyce and her younger brother Glaydon enjoyed country living and all the hard work it entailed.

Joyce was also raised with a tremendous pride in her family heritage. Her mother’s family came to America in the early 1600s, and her grandparents were some of the first settlers of Portage, Michigan. In fact, her family once owned vast plots of farmland between Milham and Whites Roads, along Oakland Drive. Hazel Street in Kalamazoo is named for Joyce’s mother.

As a result, Joyce was always very interested in family histories, and in family heirlooms. Some of the family’s antiques went back seven generations, and family stories were saved and passed down through the generations, as well.

Joyce’s love for history extended to the classroom, where she was a very bright and attentive student. She graduated from W.K. Kellogg High School in 1933, which was unusual for many young women in those days, during the Great Depression. Her parents taught her the value of education, and in helping others, too, and Joyce remembered her father helping feed people in need with his work during those lean times.

It wouldn’t be long before Joyce would have a family of her own to consider, however. On April 10, 1934, Joyce married her lifelong love, a young man named Cecil Wales, at a ceremony in Hickory Corners. The two had known each other all their lives, and as they got older, a love blossomed between them, growing into a lifelong love.

The couple eventually settled in Vicksburg, where they would remain most of their lives, and close to Cecil’s job at Upjohn, where he worked for many years.

Joyce and Cecil were blessed with two wonderful children, Cynthia and David, who made them so happy and proud. She was a wonderful wife and mother and an excellent housekeeper. There was little question that Joyce was the true matriarch of the family, and while she could often be stubborn and independent, she also possessed a great sense of humor, too.

Joyce also instilled her love for family history in her children. Like her mother and her mother’s mother before her, Joyce was a master storyteller, and a dedicated family historian, and keeper of the family photos (the first generation to do so, in fact).

Joyce was a faithful member of the St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in Vicksburg, and she instilled her faith in the Lord in her children as well.

After Cecil retired from Upjohn, the couple packed up and left Vicksburg, opting for the beautiful scenery found in Mesa, Arizona. It was their favorite place on earth, really, and they had seen plenty of the earth together, too. The couple had an Air Stream travel trailer, and together they visited every state in the Union over the years, as both of them loved to travel. Being the history buff Joyce was, she especially loved to experience new places and learn about new things.

When Cecil’s health began to decline later in life, the couple moved back to the Vicksburg area, to be closer to their family. Joyce and Cecil loved spending time with their grandkids, and enjoyed having their grandkids over to the house to play board games with them. Though a house full of antiques wasn’t the most “childproof” place to be, Joyce always showed great love and patience with the children.

Sadly, Joyce’s beloved husband died in 1993, after nearly 60 years of marriage, and nearly 80 years of friendship. She took his loss understandably hard, but relied on her family and her faith to persevere for many years afterward. In addition to her husband, she lost her children, David and Cynthia and two grandchildren, Mark Wales and Glenna Huey.

Eventually, however, Joyce’s health declined, as well, and she died peacefully at her home on Sunday, December 30, 2007, at the age of 92.

Joyce was a wonderful woman, who lived a wonderful life, a life full of family, of faith, and fond memories. She was a woman with a deep appreciation for her family’s history, and her family legacy. It was a legacy she proudly carried in her heart, and one she passes on to her loving family today. She will be greatly missed.

Learn more about Joyce, view her Life Story film, and visit with her family and friends Thursday from 6-8 p.m. at the Life Story Funeral Home, RDMG ,Vicksburg, 409 S Main. A Rosary will be prayed at 6pm on Thursday. Mass of Christian Burial will be at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church.

Please visit Joyce’s memory page at www.lifestorynet.com, where you can share a favorite memory or photo, sign her memory book online or make a memorial donation to the South County Ambulance Service.