Joyce Freeland

Joyce Mitchell Freeland was born on September 11, 192 9 to Lyndell and H. L. Mitchell, in Curve, Tennessee. She had two brothers, Harry and Sam. When she was very young, her father moved the family to Tyronza, Arkansas, where he was one of the cofounders of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union. Before she started to the first grade, the family moved to Memphis, where she lived most of her life. After graduating from the University of Memphis (known as Memphis State at that time) she taught school at Haywood County High School in Brownsville where she met Joe Lawrence Freeland, her future husband. After a very brief courtship, they were married on July 24, 1953 in Memphis. She gave birth to her first daughter Joyce Anne nine months and three days later annd to another daughter Lynda less than a year after that. During the early years of her marriage, she lived in Brownsville, Vicksburg, Natchez, and Jackson, Tennessee before the family relocated to Memphis. She taught at Bartlett High School (mainly math with a little Latin) until she was 61 years old. Joyce’s husband Joe Freeland, was born in Stanton Tennessee on December 1, 1917 to George Farris and Mabel Ada Coppedge Freeland. He worked as a newspaper writer and copy editor, mainly for the Commercial Appeal. He was also a comedy magician. Joe and Joyce were happily married for 55 years before Joe died from sepsis in January 2009. They shared a love for St.Louis Cardinals baseball and Memphis Tigers basketball for all those years. Joyce suffered from dystonia and died on September 9, 2013. Sadly, neither of their two daughters seem to have inherited the genes for math or comedic prestidigitation nor did they leave any heirs.