Joyce J. Haggerty

Joyce J. Haggerty age 94, died Sunday, October 21, 2012. Joyce Jameson Haggerty age 94, died Sunday, October 21, 2012. She was born to Frank and Alma Jameson of Gays Mills on Nov. 4, 1917. For the first twelve years of her life she shared a large house on Orin Street, kitty-corner from the Congregational Church, with her two sisters, two brothers, and her mother, who passed away at the young age of thirty-six. Her father remarried, and two half sisters and two half brothers soon joined Jo. She attended the Gays Mills Grade and High School, married, and raised her family locally. After setting up a first grocery store where the Dudgeon Veterinary Clinic now stands, with her husband-to-be, William D. Haggerty, the two of them were married at home, in the evening, by her grandfather, Rev. Jameson. She then moved one door east, on Orin Street, and set up housekeeping and raising a family in a house built for her grandmother, Julia Mitchell, by her husband, Ole Fortney. Here Joyce and William raised a family that would reap the pleasures of growing up and playing on her home turf, which included all three houses belonging to family members on the south side of Orin Street, in the 400 Block. As they would go on to eventually own and operate three grocery and general stores on the Main Street of Gays Mills, consecutively, Joyce would take time out to deliver, nurture, and raise three sons, Jay, Lee and Rance, born 1941, 1943 and 1947 respectively. From her young teen-age years Joyce ardently pursued a colorful career of painting in pastels, oil, watercolors and charcoal drawings, dreaming of becoming a famous artist. And she did. Her most famous works are those of the Old Mill at the edge of town by the river, which she displayed in the huge general store, most commonly known as the Lewis Store. Besides wildlife and wild water scenery, she painted perhaps a thousand variations of the Old Mill, for people far and wide across the nation who were born and raised in or around the Kickapoo Valley. Each painting was a true labor of love and perfection. When hard times came knocking at the doors of small town businesses in the sixties, Joyce and William moved to Milwaukee for twenty years, where jobs were more plentiful and their sons attended college, eventually each graduating from one of the University of Wisconsin institutions. William and Joyce shared a more carefree existence, drawing joy and happiness from the bustling city life they had never know, from 1965 until Williams death from cancer in 1983, at the age of sixty-five. Subsequently, Joyce returned to the Gays Mills family home which had been rented out for nearly two decades, and passionately resumed painting, gardening, and walking her two poodle dogs. Many family gatherings were again held at home and around the backyard bonfire. Joyce loved painting, visiting family members, friends, and townsfolk. She would often comment, if asked, "Why would I want to live any place else, when this valley is the most beautiful spot on earth!" She loved life, and she loved Gays Mills. Though she was preceded in death by her loving husband, William, her sisters Betty and Ruth, her brother, John, and her half-brother, Doug, she is survived by her sons, Rance and his wife Sue, and their son, Jameson, of La Crescent, Minnesota; Lee, his wife, Ada, his daughter, Robin Jo Ann Williams and her two children, Christopher Lee Knight and Cassidy Rose Williams, of Portland, Oregon; and Jay, of Gays Mills, and his son, Branston of Prague; brother, Don of Deerfield; half-sisters, Nancy Piehl of Gays Mills, Patricia Jameson Clay of Madison and half-brother, Scott Jameson of Madison. For the past twelve years, Joyce resided at Sannes Skogdalen Nursing Home in Soldiers Grove. Joyce had visitors from around the valley on nearly a daily basis, and from across the land, notably her son, Lee, on his yearly pilgrimages to the East. Son, Jay read to her almost daily in the afternoons. Joyce suffered a stroke on her left side in 1999, but made the most of her life at Sannes Skogdalen where the wonderful staff became not only her caretakers but her friends as well. The directors, nurses, and staff members of Sannes Skogdalen provided a life that is positively unequalled in comfort, care and consideration across this nation. Joyce was happy and content to move on to her beloved husband, William. Though she will be missed, she will always be loved and most lovingly remembered. Graveside services were held on Tuesday, October 23, 2012 in the Gays Mills Cemetery. Pastor Lorie Betz officiated. The Vosseteig Funeral Home of Gays Mills is serving the family.