Margaret Joyce Barnes

Margaret Joyce Barnes, (April 20, 1933—November 24, 2017) Born Margaret Gambill, in Wheeler, Mississippi near Booneville, to Marguerite Gambill (neé Collum) and Wilburn Douglas Gambill, Margaret was known by her middle name, Joyce, to family and friends for much of her 84 years. She grew up in a large, loving family, alongside her two younger sisters, Betty and Patsy, and two younger brothers, Billy (d. 2012) and Teddy. She went to school in Booneville, graduating from Booneville High School, and Northeast Mississippi Community College. In her youth, she was musically inclined, learning to play the piano, and singing in the church choir. She enjoyed playing piano for many years, and her children remember her playing for them. In her later years, Margaret revealed she was an Elvis fan. After earning her associate’s degree, Joyce moved to Memphis, and began working for Humble Oil Co. in their Memphis office, where she was introduced to Gene Barnes by Gene’s sister Ruth, a co-worker. After dating for a while, Joyce and Gene were soon engaged. He gave her the ring at Christmas, 1960 and they married on March 25, 1961, staying married for 35 years until parted by his death on November 5th, 1996. She is survived by her son Kenneth Barnes of Memphis, and daughter Linda Snyder of Huntersville, NC, and four grandchildren, Michelle Barnes, Jeanna Barnes, Charlie Snyder and Kathleen Snyder, her sisters Betty Vicaro of Baton Rouge, LA, and Patsy Temple of Meridian, MS and brother Theodore “Teddy” Gambill, also of Meridian. A full-time mom when Ken and Linda were little, Joyce was the bookkeeper of the family, and later became a bookkeeper for the A.B. Dick copier company once the children were at school during the day, while Gene worked for Holiday Inns, Inc., at first as an interior designer for their hotel projects, and later as a project manager for new hotels being constructed. They worked and sacrificed to provide a good education for Ken and Linda, and encouraged them from an early age by reading. She and Gene lived to see their daughter become a physician, and she eventually saw their son become an attorney. Joyce had supported her husband’s education as well earlier in their marriage as he earned his B.F.A. from Memphis State University. In her leisure time in younger years, she was in a bowling league and enjoyed traveling with friends and family. She enjoyed gardening, and in later years, tending the rose bushes at her house in Cordova, TN. She cooked for her family, and made and decorated the birthday cakes for Ken and Linda’s earliest birthdays, and sweet treats to share for the holidays. When the children were small, she worked part time in the home as a seamstress, starting her own business doing sewing alterations. Her entrepreneurial spirit continued into her later years, as she studied for her real estate license and became an agent for Pyramid Realtors, and supported Gene in his side businesses. Later she worked part-time during tax season for the Internal Revenue Service, before retiring briefly to her Cordova home after Gene’s death. She had faced challenges with her health for many years, and in her last years, complications from diabetes left her hands and feet numbed, and she moved from assisted living to nursing home care. In 2013, she and her friends and family gathered to celebrate her 80th birthday with her, as part of the annual April “triple birthday” she shares with her son Ken and granddaughter Michelle who were born on the 19th and 18th, respectively. Her health declined further over the years in the nursing home, until succumbing to pneumonia a little over seven months after celebrating her 84th birthday. She is missed by all who loved her, and the family requests that if you would like to make a donation in her memory, please consider a gift to diabetes-related charities like the American Diabetes Association or Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Visitation will be from 6-8 PM Friday evening, December 1, 2017, with the service at 2 PM Saturday afternoon, December 2, 2017.