Joy Marie Starr July 07, 1925 – February 06, 2019 Send Sympathy Gifts Sign Guestbook| Send Private Condolences| Send Sympathy Card On the Feast of the Epiphany, the angels came and escorted Joy Marie Starr into heaven. She was ready and transitioned peacefully, looking forward to the reunion of loved ones who had gone before her. Born Gioia Marie Petrelli, this first generation American was raised in an era of gangsters and prohibition.
However, this didn’t stop her bold and courageous spirit. She loved the days her father “got a scolding” for transporting liquor. She would sit on a desk at the police station, savoring an ice cream cone and dream of being a lion tamer.
By age 6, she was riding the streetcars by herself and made Chicago her personal playground. At 17, Joy fell for a handsome lad who wore a 10-gallon hat and performed tricks and stunts on a horse like a rodeo cowboy. Before Thomas John Starr was set to deploy overseas, the two lovebirds hitched a ride to the altar on a beer truck and were joined in holy matrimony on April 3, 1943.
Their love brought forth 7 treasured children and a lifetime of adventure. The couple shared 53 anniversaries before Tom’s death in 1996. Throughout her life, Joy’s magnetic personality made her a friend-maker extraordinaire.
Always positive and uplifting, she welcomed everyone with open arms, eager to listen and share in their lives. There was nothing phony about her. She told it like it was and imparted life lessons whether we wanted to hear them or not.
She was independent, confident, and self-assured. “Until you’ve eaten as many loaves as I have, keep your thoughts to yourself”. Filled with compassion and a fierce sense of justice, this amazing woman took action on behalf of those who couldn’t.
This passion led to her work with abused children and women’s political issues. Joy was as feisty as she was big-hearted, as full of wonder as wisdom. Vibrant in both personality and dress.
Whether bright and colorful, or simple and elegant, she had a sense of style all her own, and a hat for every occasion. One of her many talents was her art of letter writing. Her patented ability to squeeze a dozen unrelated topics into a few eloquently scrolled sentences that meandered around the edges of the paper was a delight.
These handwritten notes were more than heartfelt words. They were treasured gifts filled with newspaper clippings, magazine articles, recipes, and comic strips. She loved black and white movies, card and board games, books to expand the mind, and music to inspire the heart.
She found beauty in the simple things in life such as a flower garden or the early morning song of a cardinal. Wherever life took her, Joy made herself at home. After leaving Chicago, she created a big splash in California, showed Missouri a thing or two, traveled Route 66 back to the Land of Lincoln, nestled into the Crossroads of America, sparkled in Oregon’s City of Sunshine, danced with the Northern Lights in Montana, and added more spice to New Mexico than Hatch Green Chiles.
At 93 years young, Joy still flirted with her doctors, sang and danced at every opportunity, and made no apologies for her life-long love affair with fudge. She truly lived life her own way, in the moment, without regret. Her absence will leave an irreplaceable void in our hearts, but her spirit shall live on through her 6 surviving children, 13 grandchildren, 31 great-grandchildren, 9 great-great grandchildren, and extended family and friends.
People who knew her would not be surprised to learn she donated her body to forensic studies, what she referred to as NCIS. In lieu of a service, a Celebration of Life is planned for July 7, 2019. Joy’s eternal hope for family and friends is to eat healthy and exercise.
Smile and think happy thoughts. Find something to laugh about every hour. And be there for each other.
Her last words were of the Feast of the Epiphany. “That’s the day of giving. I gave all my family the gift of life”.
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