Joy Ellen Flint died peacefully at her home in Athens, GA, surrounded by family, after 95 eventful years of life. Joy was born in Port Huron, Michigan to William Earl Goldsworthy and Kathryn Warren Goldsworthy. After earning a degree in journalism at the University of Michigan, she worked for an advertising agency and at the State Department. In 1951, she married her fellow Michigander Roy Kenneth Flint, embarking on a sixty-four year marriage that would take them around the world through the course of Roy’s career in the US Army. Wherever they were stationed, Joy provided a warm home-away-from home for fellow soldiers and their families, making enduring friendships. They raised four children, with Joy keeping the children from running wild while Roy served combat tours in Korea and Vietnam.
After Roy’s retirement, they eventually settled in Valle Crucis, NC, where they lived on the Watauga River and enjoyed hiking, cross-country skiing, tubing down the river, and spending time with family and friends. Together they planted trees along the river bank, and Joy nurtured her perennial garden. Throughout her life, she expressed her artistic soul by creating beautiful and whimsical arrangements, combining flowers, found objects, old lace, and antiques. She was not afraid to pick up a hammer and saw and build her own trellis or any other project she had in mind. Her children have many memories of her energetically stripping and refinishing furniture, painting anything with a surface, sewing clothes for the family, and embroidering Victorian crazy quilts.
Joy and Roy became active members of The Church of The Holy Cross in Valle Crucis. She often said that they were truly blessed to find this active, loving community of faith. She and Roy volunteered in many of the ministries of the church, and especially loved working for the church’s Valle Country Fair, which gives proceeds directly to the most vulnerable members of the surrounding community.
After Roy’s death in 2016, Joy moved to Georgia to be closer to family. Although she missed her Roy every day, she lived a rich life there, filled with new friends, landmark family events, and regular water aerobics classes. Joy frequently told her children not to be sad when she was gone because she had lived a wonderful life, and was “one lucky duck,” but they knew that they were truly the lucky ducks.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Roy Kenneth Flint, her great-granddaughter Allie Elizabeth Yarn, and her sisters, Carol Myers and Beth Hale. She is survived by her daughter Lisa Flint Yarn and husband Douglas, and their children Molly Greer and Charles and his wife Mary Kate, along with their children Charles (Tripp) and Camille Joy; son Paul Flint and wife Laurie, and their daughter Carlyn Flint Johnson and her husband DeAndrae Johnson; son Chris Flint and wife Tara and their daughters Anna, Greer, and Marion; and daughter Amy Beth Flint Howard and husband John and their son William; and by her nieces, Rebecca Scott and Christine Murgueytio, and nephew, Jon Hale.
She will be interred with her beloved Roy in the mountains where they spent many happy years. She will be remembered by all who knew her as a person who truly embodied her given name–Joy.
A graveside service will be held in the cemetery of St. John’s Church, Valle Crucis, NC, on Saturday, September 14, 2024, at a time to be announced.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to:
The Church of the Holy Cross in Valle Crucis, NC at https://onrealm.org/TheChurchtheHol63885/-/form/give/now
The Food Bank of Northeast Georgia at https://foodbanknega.org/contact/donate/
Bernstein Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.9.6