Joyce Delores Eakin
Joyce Delores Eakin, 97, of Chattanooga, passed away on July 4, 2024, four days shy of her 98th birthday.
Joyce was born in Kennett, Mo., on July 8, 1926, to the late James Currey Bratton and Mary Isabelle Parson Bratton Jones. She and her family relocated to Caruthersville where she attended school and was a High School cheerleader. After graduating high school she enrolled in the US Cadet Nurse Corps where she learned the skills to be a registered nurse. At the early age of 25 she was the head nurse at the Methodist Hospital in Memphis where she met her husband, William “Bill” Eakin who had just been discharged from the United States Air Force at the end of WWII and he was attending Dentistry School. The two were married in 1948 and soon thereafter relocated to Chattanooga where Bill started his dental practice in East Ridge. Joyce and Bill had four children and were very active in the community and in their church, Brainerd United Methodist. Joyce was very active in all of her children’s activities.
She served in many clubs and organizations, such as being president of the Tennessee Women’s Dental Auxillary, the Kosmas-Womans’s Club, and many committees at her church and she even served as Camp Nurse during Church Camp at Camp Lookout.
She was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She always put the needs of her family first. She was a sweet, kind, loving, Christian woman. She loved the beach, and going to the farm and tending to her flower and vegetable gardens.
Joyce was preceded in death by her loving husband of 64 years, William “Bill” Albert Eakin, her son, William Albert Eakin, Jr. “Billy”, her aforementioned parents, her brother, James Currey Bratton, Jr., and a step-father, Lyman Jones.
Left behind to cherish Joyce’s memory are her children, Donna (Vic) Massari, Cathy Eakin, and Bruce (Renda) Eakin, grandchildren, Katie (Nick) Olson, Ashley (Brian) Mauldin, Christopher Jones, and Brittney (Coty) Carter, great-grandchildren, Jones Mauldin and Denver Carter, sister, Doris Bratton Pope, several nieces and nephews and many dear friends.
A Celebration of Joyce’s Life will be held graveside in the Forest Hills Cemetery on Tuesday, July 9, at 1 p.m. The family will receive friends at the East Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home prior to the service beginning at 10:30 a.m.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in Joyce’s memory can be to the Alzheimer’s Association, 110 Somerville Ave., Suite 227, Chattanooga, Tn. 37405 https:/www.alz.org/tn or to Brainerd United Methodist Church, 4315 Brainerd Road, Chattanooga, Tn. 37411, https://brainerdumc.org/give/
Chattanooga Funeral Home East Chapel, 404 S. Moore Rd., East Ridge, has been entrusted with the arrangements.