Joyce M Manning

Joyce was born in Marietta, Oklahoma, to the late Edgar and Dovie Mitchell. The family moved to California in 1944, and one of her childhood memories that she often spoke of was the long train ride with numerous soldiers from the war. Graduating from Fresno Tech High School in 1950, she married the late Thomas L. Manning in 1956, and they had one child in 1960.

She is survived by her son Alan and his wife Sheryl, her brother Jim Mitchell and his wife Jan, her brother Jerry and his wife Sandy, her brother-in-law Carl Manning and his wife Rosemary. She is also survived by numerous “adopted” grandchildren but grew especially close to four granddaughters: Mariah, Savannah, Jocelyn, and Tamaryn.

Even though Joyce had training to be a CNA, she enjoyed working around children and found a career in food services for the FUSD in the Mayfair Elementary School cafeteria for over twenty years. She also loved her two little Boston terrier pup-pups, Mariska and Kaela. Some of her interests included collecting statues of owls and Dalmatians and Tweety Bird items. Through the years at various times, she had enjoyed working crossword puzzles, reading the tabloids for the latest gossip, and watching favorite TV stars and shows, from John Wayne and Roy Rogers to Charlie Chan movies and Murder, She Wrote. She liked mystery in all its guises, and her favorite investigative show of all was NCIS. She also had a love of classic country music, taking great pride in the fact that she knew 50’s country artist Webb Pierce, who had several chart-topping songs such as “There Stands the Glass,” “I Ain’t Never,” and “Why Baby Why.”

The family wishes to thank all her doctors and health staff that worked to help her battle her cancer. They loved her as a patient because she was friendly, good natured, compassionate, accepting, and sensitive to those around her and these are the qualities we will all miss.

Graveside Service will be held at Fresno Memorial Gardens on Friday, July 27, 2012 at 10:00 am.