The Shreveport Times

Friday, December 08, 2006

Obituaries

James William Joyner

Pelican Cemetery, DeSoto Parish, LA

SHREVEPORT, LA - Funeral services for James William Joyner of Pelican will be held on Friday, December 8th, at 11:00 am at Pelican United Methodist Church. Burial will follow in the Pelican Cemetery. Reverends Doris Sheppard and Mike McKee will conduct the services. The family will receive friends from 10:00 to 11:00 am preceding the service at the church.

Mr. Joyner died in Shreveport after a short illness on Wednesday December 6th. Jim was born March 9th, 1927 in Mansfield and raised in Pelican where he graduated from Pelican high School in 1944. He served in the U.S. Army in the European Theater from 1945 to 1947. He attended Louisiana State University earning a degree in electrical engineering in 1949. He started work at Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1953 in Shreveport and retired in 1985, after 32 years of service, rising to the position of General Manager of Network Planning and Engineering for Louisiana. During his career with Southern Bell and BellSouth, he was active in the IEEE and Telephone Pioneers. He returned to Pelican in 1990. He was an active member of the Pelican United Methodist Church and a certified lay speaker, a volunteer fireman, a member and former officer of the DeSoto Historical and Genealogical Society, and past President and Board Member of the Rambin Wallace Water System.

Mr. Joyner is preceded in death by his parents, Henry and Fay Joyner and his first wife, Jackie Joyner. He is survived by wife Margaret Warren Joyner of Pelican and her mother Rose Warren of New Orleans. He is also survived by his brother Robert Joyner of Lafayette and spouse Betty Whatley Joyner; three children and their spouses: Hugh and Jane Joyner of Lakeland Florida; Henry and Betsy Joyner of Colleyville Texas; and Annette and Olaf McDavid of Baton Rouge; step daughter Alexandra and spouse Michael Houghton of Birmingham, Alabama; and eight grandchildren: Jamie, Robbie, Sarah, and Kaydi Joyner; Joshua, Jordan and Tucker Tremblay; and Christopher and his spouse Violet Tremblay.

The family suggests that in lieu of flowers, memorials be made to either Pelican United Methodist Church (P.O. Box 103 Pelican, La. 71063) or the Louisiana Methodist Children's Home in Ruston. (P.O. Box 929 Ruston, La. 71273.

Rose-Neath Funeral Home, Mansfield, LA. 318-872-4660