Kiyomi T. Joyce

On Saturday, August 20, 2022, Kiyomi Joyce, loving mother, passed away at age ninety-one. Born in Wuhan, China on November 1,1930 she was raised in Nagasaki City, Japan. A survivor of the atomic bomb attack in Nagasaki, Kiyomi has been featured in the Dayton Daily News and Hartford Courant. While working at Fukuoka Air base, she met and married Paul Brooks Joyce, an Airman 1st Class and came to America in 1958. Her two daughters were born here. She was widowed in 1961 and chose to stay here for her daughters, raising them in the Hartford, CT area.

Kiyomi was an avid artist, flower arranger, active in her children’s lives and at the Unitarian Meeting House of Hartford where she was awarded the Unsung Hero Award for her years of unassuming service. She moved to Ohio to live with her eldest daughter in 1997. She was active at Riverbend Art, the Japanese American Citizens League, the International Affair and the Dayton Art Institute. She became a US citizen in her 80th year.

She passed in her home listening to the voice of her youngest, Karen, and in the arms of her oldest, Paula. Family had the time to surround her during the week preceding and tell her of their love and admiration. Kiyomi is best known and will be remembered for her cooking, style, strength, talent, stubborn determination and fierce love and protection of her family and friends. She is additionally survived by her grandchildren Kathryn Day (41), Dylan (25) and Seana (23) Cleary and her great-grandchildren Deegan (9) and Finley (7) Charter, Son-in Laws Ron Olszewski and Douglas Cleary, and her siblings and their children in Japan.

A private gathering will be held to celebrate this courageous woman on Saturday, Sept. 3rd. In lieu of giving flowers, the family asks that those who are able instead donate to Ohio Hospice.