Frances LaJoy Garrett, 92, passed away peacefully in Plano on April 14, 2019. She was born on May 10, 1926 in Yantis, Texas to Charles Newton McCreight and Edith Creitzberg McCreight. She grew up as a child in Yantis moving to Mesquite, Texas when she was 12 years of age. She was a scholarly person resulting in her double promotion two different times during her school years. She was a very caring and loving person who was totally devoted to her husband, her only daughter and three grandsons and seven great grandchildren.
Joy, as her friends called her, graduated from Mesquite High School where she was a cheerleader. It was there that she met the love of her life, Harold Herbert Garrett. They were married on May 21, 1943 shortly before he joined the U.S. Navy during World War II. Joy enrolled in Rutherford Business School to prepare for future employment for several organizations leading her to serving as church secretary for South Beckley Baptist Church in Dallas, where she and Harold were members. They were later members of Buckner Terrace Baptist Church in Dallas and ultimately members of Prairie Creek Baptist Church in Plano. They enjoyed a long and blessed marriage celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary in 2018. When Harold retired from the Navy in 1962, they established co-ownership in Dallas Exterminating Company providing pest control services to the Dallas-Fort Worth area and the North Texas Region. She managed the internal operations of the business and he managed the external operations of the service.
In their spare time Joy and Harold enjoyed being at their lake house on Cedar Creek Lake where they looked forward to having family and friends join them. They established a close relationship with their Navy colleagues; Wade and Marguerite Owen, J.E. and Mary Barnes, Deak and Lee Smith and Lynn and Georgia Maye Roten where they shared numerous excursions and events together. Joy loved to listen to country and western music but was particularly moved by listening to Christian hymns praising her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. She especially enjoyed listening to music by the Gaithers. Her most precious times where being with her daughter and only child, Sondra and her husband Ron, and being with her three grandchildren and their wives and her seven great-grandchildren.
Joy is preceded in death by her parents Charles Newton McCreight and Edith McCreight Young, her husband Harold Herbert Garrett and two infant daughters Carolyn Sue Garrett and Sharon Gayle Garrett. Also predeceasing her is her sister Franciel McCallum.
She is survived by her daughter Sondra Garrett Skaggs and husband Ronald Lloyd Skaggs, her grandsons David Alan Skaggs and wife Kimberly Hamic Skaggs, Stephen Brian Skaggs, Jeffrey Garrett Skaggs and his wife Katherine Bowers Skaggs, her great-grandsons Kyle David Skaggs, Mark Alan Skaggs, Chase Garrett Skaggs, Trey Austin Skaggs, Shane Ryan Skaggs, Jack Henry Skaggs and her great- granddaughter Samantha Allison Skaggs, her brother Phil Young and numerous nieces and nephews.
The family welcomes guests and visitors on Friday May 3rd for viewing at 10:00 am followed by a memorial service at 10:30 am, officiated by Dr. Randall Worley in the chapel of the Ted Dickey West Funeral Home, 8011 Frankford Rd. Dallas,Texas 75252. A private family burial will be at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery later that afternoon.
Donations can be made to the Scottish Rite Hospital for Children
