Joyce C. Ellis

Joyce Cook Ellis, 83, of Port Orange, Florida, passed away peacefully in her home, Saturday April 13, 2024, surrounded in love by her three daughters. Born in Crestview, Florida, March 26,1941, to parents Raymond and Bernice Cook, Joyce grew up as the daughter of a Navy flight engineer and spent her formative years in Florida and Hawaii with her adolescent years in Lexington Park, Maryland, where she graduated from Great Mills High School in 1959. After a brief education at St Mary’s College, she attended air career school in New York before becoming employed with Riddle Airlines. While working for the airline in Charleston, SC, she met her husband of 22 years, Frederick F. Ellis. Together they were blessed with three daughters and moved to Ormond Beach, Florida in 1974, where they worked hard to become successful business owners. Joyce was a beautiful woman with a huge heart and was loved and adored by all who met her. She had many interests, including music and the arts, shopping, talking and connecting with people and her love of God. Later in life, Joyce was afforded an early retirement and enjoyed traveling with her dear friend Linda. However, Joyce’s greatest achievement and lifelong love was her 3 daughters and their families. Blessed with eight grandchildren and six great grandchildren, her family was truly the joy of her life, as she was the joy of theirs as well.

Joyce was preceded in death by her parents; Bernice and Raymond T. Cook of Port Orange, FL. She is survived by her daughters Denise (Lex) Aponte of Tampa, Suzanne (Steve) Macklen of Myrtle Beach, SC, and Paige Courtright of Pawleys Island, SC. Surviving grandchildren include Alex, Elise and Ethan Johnson; Rachell Stone, Elizabeth and Samantha Macklen; and Erin and Tradd Courtright. Surviving great-grandchildren include Logan, Cayden, Kendrick, Holden, Banks and Briggs. She is also survived by her only sibling, James R. (Patricia) Cook, Belton, MO; nephews Jason Cook of Blue Springs, MO and Chris (Mindy) Cook of Thornton, CO; and nephew Jay (Margaret) Ellis of Lexington, SC.

Please join us to celebrate the life of Joyce at the Volusia Memorial Park, 550 N. Nova Road, Ormond Beach, FL, on Monday, April 22, 2024. Visitation with the family is at 1:00 pm, with the service at 2:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Halifax Hospice and/or the American Lung Association in Joyce’s honor.

“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John14:6