Joyce Miriam Sickels

A life well lived...

Joyce Miriam Emery was born on August 23, 1922, to Grant G. and Pearl M. (Knauss) Emery at the Easton Hospital in Easton, PA and passed peacefully in her home in Phillipsburg, NJ, October 16, 2022.

She was raised and resided in Warren County, NJ, mainly in Phillipsburg, but with a short stay in Alpha, for her entire life. Educated in the Phillipsburg School District she was a 1940 graduate of Phillipsburg High School. A life member of Grace Lutheran Church, during her teenage years, she met the love of her life Kenneth Sickels who was also a member of Grace Lutheran Church. Ken was at the time an accomplished roller skater in the local area.

After high school Joyce and Kenneth went their separate ways with Ken starting a career in custom scientific printing setup work and Joyce pursued college and a teaching career. Joyce enrolled at the New Jersey State Teachers College in Trenton, NJ in the fall semester of 1940. While there, the college implemented an accelerated program due to school staffing shortages caused by WW2 workforce needs. With this program, Joyce graduated six months early on Saturday, January 15, 1944 with a degree in Primary Education and went to work as a primary school teacher the following Monday, January 17. She began teaching in the Belvidere, NJ School district at the Harmony Township School, then in September, 1944, transferred to the Phillipsburg School District as a second-grade teacher at the Reese School. In the fall of 1949, Joyce was selected to launch a new program called Kindergarten on a trial basis in the district. This launch in the 1949-50 school year at the Freeman School proved a success and Joyce enjoyed the next 28 years teaching Kindergarten in the district at Freeman and Green Street schools. All told, Joyce taught for thirty-four and a half years until her retirement in June, 1978.

During the late 1940’s, she re-acquainted with Kenneth and on June 30th, 1951, they were married at Grace Lutheran Church. They lived in Phillipsburg on Bullman Street, in Alpha on Williams Street and in June 1966 moved back to Phillipsburg. Ken and Joyce were married for nearly 55 years until Kens death April 9, 2006.

In her retirement, Joyce spent many years caring for her mother Pearl Emery and aunt Laura Morrow, took several vacations with Ken to Maine, raised and loved several cats, including Peaches, Putt-Putt, Serena and Chloe, served on the Grace Lutheran Church Council, and spent quality time with her close friends, Viz., Anna Mae, Betty, Pauline, Tammy and Gwen, caregivers Karen and Anita as well as making and sharing memories with her first cousin Carol Dovan and  the extended Dovan family. To her credit, Joyce drove a car until one month before her 99th birthday.

On her birthday this year, the Town of Phillipsburg recognized Joyce for her 100th birthday. See the WFMZ-TV news report on that day HERE

Joyce is and has been a generous, thoughtful, and integral family member to the Dovan family and extended family and it is a privilege to call her Cousin Joycer!

Funeral services will be held 11:00 am, Friday, October 28, 2022 in Grace Lutheran Church, 300 Roseberry Street, Phillipsburg. Burial will be in Northampton Memorial Shrine, Palmer Township, PA.

Donations: In Joyce's memory, donations to Grace Lutheran Church would be appreciated.

Arrangements: Noto-Wynkoop Funeral Home, 289 S Main Street, Phillipsburg, NJ www.noto-wynkoop.com
 

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