Joyce Foster Dayton

Joyce Foster Dayton, loving mother, wife, companion, and friend passed away peacefully at home in Fairfax VA on Sunday, December 5, 2021. Always curious, buoyant and quick with an answer she was the basis for many a completed crossword puzzle or appropriate solution to the question at hand. With her outgoing and personable nature, Joyce was always quick to start a conversation and with little effort put folks at ease. In addition, she exhibited a creative side that led her to sing in the choir for a number of years at the Fairfax Methodist Church and provided her with the ability to gracefully cut a rug with the best of them. Avid reader, engaged volunteer, traveler, wife, mother and grandmother, dear friend of many with a kind smile and a generous soul – she was everything to her family and will be sorely missed.

Joyce was born October 12, 1937 in Oklahoma City to James Elmer and Alice Morse Foster. She spent a happy childhood in the Oklahoma City area and graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in Speech Therapy. A proud member of the Delta Gamma Sorority, Joyce was elected the 1957 Feudal Princess of the Oklahoma Chapter of Delta Upsilon Fraternity. During her tenure at the University, she met Allen Dayton, who was smart enough to know a good thing when he saw it. Joyce and Allen were married in June 1959 and embarked on 62 years of adventure, travel and raising two sons; Christopher Allen of San Francisco and David Leslie of Norfolk. She was also blessed with a lovely daughter-in-law, Hilarie (Norfolk) and two wonderful grandchildren, Christopher Allen Dayton, and Caroline Joyce Dayton.

A loving mother, Joyce was also an Air Force Officer’s wife who lived in Albuquerque, Los Angeles, Fairfax, and Overland Park, KS. during Allen’s service. Throughout these postings she consistently volunteered for various community and school activities. In recent years she volunteered at Fair Oaks Hospital where she supported the hospital staff.

Joyce enjoyed traveling and, during their time together, she and Allen managed to visit five of the seven continents. Along with their friends the Grimes, the Steeles and the Mertons they visited a number of exotic locations and enthusiastically sailed seas and rivers around the world. In addition she also enjoyed spending time at vacation homes in Annapolis, Bonita Springs, and Maui.

Joyce was predeceased by her parents and her brother, James Elmer Foster III. She will be missed by her husband, sons, daughter-in-law and grandchildren, her sister-in-law, Pat Foster as well as her close friend, Patricia Dresser.

A celebration of her life will be conducted at a later date upon internment at Arlington Cemetery.