John Preston Joyner

John Preston Joyner made a peaceful return to his eternal home, November 17, 2025. John was the second youngest of nine children born to Keethy Joyner, and Dorothy McIntosh in Firebaugh, California. Preceding him in death, his parents, sister Eva Santiago, brother Keith (Chuck), sisters Sylvia Gagnon, Ethel Geraldine (Jerri) Taber, Carolyn Jackson, and Mary Ellen Provost.

John, often called J.P. during his younger years, spent the bulk of his youth living country life to the fullest hunting, fishing, and finding occasional mischief with his siblings and cousins in the Central Valley region of California. He attended Pixley Elementary School and graduated from Tulare Union High School in 1969.

Following John’s high school graduation, he attended Visalia College while also working at the nearby fire department, returning home to Tulare to help with whatever needed to be done on his days off. Although his mom and dad had high hopes for a traditional path to a college degree, he surprised them both by enlisting in the United States Army to proudly serve his country alongside many friends who had been drafted. John was inducted into the Army in early 1970 and was selected for flight school. He completed his flight training and education stateside, serving out the bulk of his active military duty as a fearless Cobra Helicopter Pilot overseas in the Vietnam War. He returned to the states toward the end of his military service and was honorably discharged in late 1973.

After leaving the Army, John quickly picked back up where he left off with his education and restarted his collegiate studies in the San Jose area with courses at both San Jose City and San Jose State, where he would meet his first wife. Academic pursuits in the Arts would lead him to Seattle, which is where he first married and the first of his three daughters, Stacey, was born in 1976. Shortly thereafter, he returned with his young family to the San Jose/San Francisco Bay Area, where his daughters Elena and Anna were born in 1981 and 1985 respectively.

In the late 1980’s still residing in the Bay Area, John found professional success and fulfillment within the executive “headhunting” industry. A handful of years later, he would make a life-changing decision to separate from the successful firm he worked for and return home to the Central Valley to grow a successful company of his own. As fate would have it, this decision would lead him to meet the soulmate and love of his life, Gloria Tapia, in her hair studio “Glorious Hair” in Fresno, California in 1993, and in early 1994 they were married in a private ceremony inside the “Big Red Church” in the Fresno High School area. Through John’s union with Gloria, he was blessed to expand his family by three, to include Gloria’s children Luis, Deborah and Charline.

John and Gloria made a beautiful home life for each other within the peaceful mountains of Coarsegold, California. It was here that they created a loving, warm, and peaceful environment for all who walked through their doors. They often welcomed both family and friends to gather around their table for amazing home cooked meals, good conversation and laughter. The “Mountain House” as some of his grandkids called it was a place of wonder, adventure, and lots of animals where Grandpa John was usually taking up the lead through exploring trails and more often than not, he was the one to blame for harmless shenanigans that sometimes got everyone in trouble with Gloria. In their private time John and Gloria shared a love for traveling together especially in nature, watching movies, enjoying all kinds of music while listening and talking about the world, caring for all of their animals to include for a time horses,…and out of love for Gloria he did his absolute best to keep up with the always impressive home renovation and project list.

When his professional period of life ended, John found even greater fulfillment by serving others and the community he resided in. He was particularly proud of the work he did as a member of the Madera County Sheriff’s Posse, in which one of his most meaningful memories was being an integral part of the successful rescue of a young Central Valley girl who had gone missing in Yosemite. Despite the heroics that he loved while involved with the Posse, John’s most meaningful service would ultimately come from helping other “vets”. He saw it as his most honorable life’s work to help other veterans with creating awareness of services and resources available to them following their own active service, and he didn’t hesitate to offer his own experience and emotional support to those dealing with the difficult transition returning home to civilian life from combat and deployment.

Throughout John’s life music was always at the forefront. He was a self-taught musician of many instruments, in particular an exceptional guitarist, and skilled singer/songwriter. It comes as no surprise that this love for music has found its way through the branches of his own part of the family tree. He loved the workings of God found in nature, especially captured in the wondrous beauty within Yosemite National Park – his favorite entry which was through the Park’s South gate he believed to be the most exceptional of all, and he found true enjoyment from sharing the experience with many visiting family and friends. One of his most hidden talents was his ability to whip up a Sunday crockpot creation that saved him frequently during his single dad duty. You were a brave mind to attempt to challenge his head full of very useful knowledge during a Jeopardy gameshow airing, and he could easily dole out the best one-liners of wisdom that would rival the world’s most acclaimed thought leaders…he just never saw fit to publish them.

For anyone who knew John at his fullest, perhaps the loss of his articulation, his amazing ability to share and tell stories that could captivate any audience, respectfully and intelligently debate any world event you could think of, his beautiful musicianship, were all losses that were almost impossible at times to bear witness to. But for those that knew John fully, the saving grace was having full knowledge of John’s faith and love in God and Christ and where and who he would be returning home to once his final battle was done. His family has relief knowing that he has has returned home in fullness, talking up a storm, eating tons of ice cream, riding horses, playing guitar and singing loudly, but most importantly serving the Lord in the room that has been prepared for him…

”…And God willing and the creek don’t rise, this ain’t goodbye it’s just see ya soon.”

~JPJ

He lovingly leaves and is survived by, his devoted wife Gloria Tapia -Clovis, CA, his daughters Stacey (Shane) Slaven - Clovis,CA, Elena Joyner - Spokane, WA, Anna (James) DeJong -Twin Falls,ID, son Luis (Abby) Padgett - Clovis,CA, daughters Deborah (Kevin) Walsh -Groveland, MA, Charline Padgett - Franklin, TN; his sisters Kathryn (Doug) Preston - Kyle, TX, Dorothy (Joseph) Puntino - Stuart, FL, ten beloved grandchildren, a cherished host of brother and sister in-laws, cousins, multitudes of adoring nieces and nephews, and too many friends from along the path of life to count … he was blessed to be so loved and in turn blessed those that he loved right back.