Larry Joe Joyner was born June 14, 1943 at home in a sharecropper’s shack at the end of a dirt road in Henry County, West Tennessee. The house had no electricity nor running water. His parents were Joseph Ray Joyner and Keron Uzeal Lane Joyner. He was the third child, having an older sister, Keron Josephine, and an older brother, James Adron. When Larry was eighteen months old his family relocated to East Tennessee where he grew up, living at eight different places and attending four different schools. While in East Tennessee, Joe and Uzeal had two more sons, Jerry Lynn, and Roger Dale. In the spring of 1960, the family returned to West Tennessee where Larry attended Henry County High School in Paris his senior year, graduating in May 1961.
During his year at Henry County High, he met Doris Redmond, whom he married in 1963. They were married for 22 years. Together they had two children, Joel Richard (Rick), and Jana Lynne. In 2011 he married Shirley Pruitt McCullough.
In 1961, he enlisted in the Navy shortly after graduation and became a long-distance radar operator flying Super Constellation Aircraft out of Hawaii and Midway Island. He flew thousands of hours on long range flights along the Arctic Circle known as “The DEW Line,” protecting the United States from a sneak attack from Russia during the cold war. DEW was an acronym for “Distant Early Warning.” With the advent of satellites and the view from space they provided, the DEW Line was no longer needed and was phased out. Larry then soon left the Navy for a couple of years, returning in 1970, and spent the rest of his career in aircraft maintenance, retiring after 30 years’ service in 1993 as a Master Chief Petty Officer, the highest ranking held by enlisted sailors in the United States Navy.
After retiring Larry kept busy working in construction and building cabinets. He also devoted many hours helping veterans and those in need of work and housing. Larry loved visiting with friends and could often be found sitting out on his patio drinking a toddy (rum and coke). Leaving a legacy for his family became his greatest priority in the last few years. One he was able to see completed with the help of family and friends.
Larry was preceded in death by his father, Joseph Ray Joyner and mother, Keron Uzeal Joyner.
He will be deeply missed by his family including his wife Shirley A. Joyner; his children, Rick (Carina) Joyner and Jana Joyner Cox; seven grandchildren, Heidi (Jeff) Augusto, Joel Joyner, Jennifer Joyner, Trey (Elizabeth) Cox, Kyler (Valarie) Cox, Morgan (Weston) Rapozo, Bryant Cox and five great-grandchildren.
