Joyce S. Singletary Roberts

88 of Chandler, Arizona passed away on March 19, 2012. The second daughter of Dee Hall Singletary and Edith Davenport, she was born in Snyder, Texas, on June 13th, 1923. She attended school in Snyder until the end of her Sophomore year of high school, when the family moved to Abilene, Texas, where she completed high school.

In the summer of 1941, Joyce was serving refreshments at her family’s church during an Ice Cream Social for Army National Guard soldiers training at a nearby Army fort. There she met the handsome young Sergeant Leonard J. Roberts of Phoenix, Arizona. The two continued to correspond after Leonard returned home, making plans to marry. In January, 1942, Joyce took a train to Phoenix, and the two married on January 15th. After Leonard was assigned to the 3rd Armored Division and sent to California for desert warfare training, Joyce returned to Texas. She and her sister Helen worked for a part of the war years manufacturing B-24 Liberator bombers in Fort Worth while Leonard’s division saw combat in Europe. Rejoined in 1945 after WW2 ended, the two lived in Phoenix before settling in Chandler in 1946, and beginning their family.

In 1956, Joyce began work as a secretary at Williams Air Force Base supply department before transferring to the base hospital as the hospital commander’s private secretary. After 22 years at “Willy,” Joyce transferred to the Foreign Service of the US State Department for three years, working in the US Consulate in Dublin Ireland, and the US Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand, as the Ambassador’s personal secretary. Leonard had retired shortly before Joyce joined the Foreign Service, and accompanied her overseas.

Joyce and Leonard loved to travel and drove their motor home to visit most of the states of the US, and travelled often in England and Europe while stationed in Dublin. On their way home from New Zealand, the couple visited Australia. Their favorite trip took them to Africa on a camera safari where they photographed the landscapes, peoples and wild animals of Africa. This trip also included sightseeing in Europe and in Egypt where Joyce rode a camel.

Joyce is survived by her sons John (Joan), Larry (Janice) and David (Debbie), her daughter Margaret Golden, seven grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Funeral Services will be held on Saturday, March 24th, 2010 at 1PM at Valley of the Sun Funeral Home, 10940 E Chandler Heights Rd, Chandler, AZ.

Joyce lived her life to the fullest, loving God, her family and her country. Always kind, generous and loving, she made friends wherever she went, offering help whenever it was needed. To know her was to love her.

Those of us she left behind know that she is supremely happy now that she has rejoined her parents, sister, and her beloved husband.