Velma Joyce Alexander

Velma Joyce Alexander

1943 – 2022

Velma Joyce Alexander was born to Nancy Belle Elliott and William Harrison Whisenant on January 22, 1943, in Oneonta, Alabama.  Joyce was the youngest of a large, and very poor, itinerant farm labor family.  Her mother died when Joyce was less than a year old.  Because the family moved frequently, following ready-for-harvest crops, her formal education was very limited.  However, regardless of where they were at the time, the family always attended Sunday services at the nearest church.  Usually by walking to and from.  Nearly every night, her father read to his family from the Bible.  As children, Joyce and her siblings were able to quote many passages of scripture even though some of her older brothers and sister could neither read nor write.

Joyce loved children.  While raising her own, she spent many years babysitting, taking in nieces, nephews, and grandchildren for extended stays, some for months at a time.  For a time, she had a couple of foreign exchange students living in her home.

At age sixty-nine, she married her last husband, Steve Alexander.  She had found a man who loved her unconditionally and treated her as his queen.

Joyce passed away in Gulfport, MS from Cirrhosis of the Liver on Aug 21, 2022.  Joyce was pre-deceased by her parents Nancy Belle Elliott and William Harrison Whisenant, her daughter Delois Ann Starns, and sons Edward Christopher Blair and Terry Lester Baker.  Joyce is survived by her husband Steve, daughters Joyce Ann Miller, and Teresa LeeAnn Taylor.  She also leaves ten grandchildren, thirteen great-grandchildren, and two great-great grandsons!  Additionally, she was the stepmother of Steve’s four children and step-grandmother to his six grandchildren.

Visitation will be held Friday, Aug. 26th, 2022, from 1 – 2 PM at the RIEMANN FAMILY FUNERAL HOME, Three Rivers Rd., Gulfport.  Services will be held at 2 PM Friday in the funeral home chapel, followed by burial at Floral Hills Memorial Gardens on Carl Leggett Road, Gulfport.

Goodbye For Now, Joyce My Love.