Joyce A. Willey

Joyce Marie Austin Willey passed peacefully at the age of 87 on June 30, 2024, in Littleton, NH, with her family by her side. In the last few months of her life, she and her family were supported by the team at North Country Home Health and Hospice.
Joyce was born on February 18, 1937 at the Brightlook Hospital in St. Johnsbury, VT the daughter of Stephen Freeman Austin and Leah Shores Austin. Joyce was raised in Granby, VT where she attended elementary school in a one-room school house. She moved with her family to Concord, VT to attend High School. To hear her tell it, “She knew at a young age that she was destined to be a nurse.” After graduating high school in 1955, with her independent spirit, she followed her heart and traveled to Montpelier, VT to attend Heaton Hospital School of Nursing. Following graduation, despite strong encouragement from the Director of Nursing to take her talents to the metropolitan area, she chose to stay in Northern New England to keep her talents closer to home.
Joyce dedicated her life to helping others. Her healthcare experiences covered the lifespan. She started her lifelong nursing career in 1958 at St Johnsbury Hospital (now known as NVRH) and shortly thereafter began working at Weeks Medical Center in Lancaster, NH. She called Lancaster home for sixty-four years where she raised her family. She married Edward Willey Jr. in 1960 and together they owned and operated Kent Nursing Home and later Country Village Health Care Center. She also operated a group home and simultaneously took care of several older adults in her private residence. Following divorce from Edward C. Willey Jr. in 1982 she worked in Obstetrics at Weeks Memorial Hospital. In 1988 she became the Administrator of Morrison Nursing Home in Whitefield, NH, a time in her career that she described, as one of her greatest accomplishments. She never lost sight of her genuinely practical approach and her dry sense of humor as she went through life dedicating her heartfelt talents to making the lives of those she cared for, better.
Joyce was an American Red Cross Nurse for the Lancaster Chapter from 1967 to 1976, a Certified Nurse’s Aide Instructor, a Teacher at the New Hampshire Vocational-Technical College in Berlin, NH (now WMCC) and a Lancaster Rotarian. In 1973 she became a Certified Cake Decorator. Her faith, strength, resilience, and love for her family were unremarkable and a source of spiritual enrichment. She was a long-time member of the St Paul’s Episcopal Church where she served as a Lay Reader and a Vestry member. She was a daughter, sister, mother, an aunt, a grandmother, a great grandmother, and a friend. She was a natural leader and a consummate teacher, consistently trustworthy and dependable. She was described by those who knew her as “strong, determined, so friendly, very dedicated to her nursing career and her family.”
She loved gardening, baking, sewing, knitting, and crocheting.
She is preceded in death by several family members including her parents, Stephan Freeman Austin and Leah Shores Austin, a brother, Donald “Ted” Austin, a son Joel Willey, a daughter Michelle Willey Barrows, a granddaughter Rheba “Ayna” Reynolds, a step-granddaughter Marilyn Hicks Cox and two nieces, Dawn Austin Fenoff, and Pamela Austin.
She leaves behind her children Kevin and (Sandra) Willey, of Lancaster, NH, Lori (Anthony Morse) Willey, of Jefferson, NH, Kris Willey, of Lebanon, NH, and Andrea and (Karen Edwards) Willey of Littleton, NH. Nine grandchildren, Kristen and (Ben) Orvis, of Bristol, VT, Katelyn and (Ben) Smith of Lancaster, NH, Kristopher and (Jessica) Willey of Lancaster, NH, Brittani and (Jaime Griswold) Willey, of Lancaster, NH, Jakob and (Brooke Nunn) Willey of Cabot, VT, Damien Gillespie of Maryland, James and (Melissa) Edwards, of St. Johnsbury, VT, Sara and (Zach) Dea of Laconia, NH, Jeremy and (Ashley Warren) Edwards of Rineyville, KY, 23 great grandchildren, her brother Steve and (Carol) Austin, of Concord, VT, sister Hilda Lazott of Lunenburg, VT and several nieces and nephews. She has touched many lives and pieces of her continues to walk on this earth within each one of us; imprinted forever in the hearts of those who loved her.
Services will take place on Friday, July 5, 2024 at St Paul’s Episcopal Church starting at 2pm. Services will be followed by an Interment and Celebration of Life. Flowers can be sent to Bailey Funeral Home.
For those who wish to make memorial donations, Joyce requested that they be made to either the American Diabetes Association or the American Heart Association.