Joyce S. Dugan's Obituary
Joyce Dugan Obituary
Joyce S. Dugan, 102, of Kendal at Oberlin, died June 9, 2020 in her home where she has lived for the past 26 years. Joyce, who died weeks shy of her 103rd birthday was born Aug. 7, 1917 in Cleveland, the daughter of Rhoda Leila (nee Allyn) and Ralph Percy Schelly. She was a graduate of Shaw High School, Cleveland and Lake Erie College, Painesville, class of 1939. Joyce often said her class was the last before the world changed forever with the onset of World War II. She had a strong sense of history throughout her long life, which spanned most of the 20th century and well into the 21st. Joyce was a reporter at the Painesville Telegraph when she met her future husband, Charles C. Dugan of Perry. A WWII bride, they scrapped plans for a June wedding and were married three weeks after Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 27, 1941 in Waukegan, Ill., before Charles was shipped out with the Navy. During the war years, Joyce worked for the Red Cross in Key West and hosted a classical music program for the Armed Services Radio in the Caribbean. After the war, they returned to the family farm in Perry, where they established Dugan Nurseries along with partners, David R. Dugan, Paul Brockway and their wives Eleanor and Ethel respectively While raising her children, Joyce was a “farm” wife. Her vegetable gardens were large, her kitchen a hive of canning and freezing throughout the year. Her menus reflected what was ripe in the garden. During those years, Joyce was a Girl Scout leader and, because she was an excellent seamstress, created costumes for her daughters’ junior-high musicals, not to mention their prom dresses. With her children entering college, Joyce returned to college herself, and with her teacher’s certificate, taught English at Madison middle schools for 11 years. Joyce lived near Lake Erie her entire life, spending her girlhood summers at the family cottage on the beach in Will-O-Bee, and then her adult life with her children on summer mornings at the beach in North Perry. She swam until her 99th year, her children carrying her across the sand and delivering her into her beloved lake. She decried the lake’s desecration in the ‘60s but celebrated its revival in the late ‘70s with “a dip.” Well into her 100th year, she continued to write weekly letters to her children beginning with “nature notes;” observations from her back yard or out her window at Kendal. In summer, the family camped in the Adirondack Mountains; hiking, fishing, canoeing in a place she referred to as her “second home.” She loved picnics whether on the beach or along Lake County’s rivers and, when she moved to Oberlin, on the rural rivers and lakes of Lorain County. Her son, Skip took her on her last of many rides along rural roads in February. She always noted the angle of the sun on the lay of the fields as it changed throughout the year. She was a proud member of the Lake County Environmental Committee when it was founded in the ‘60s. Her other passions were classical music, which could be heard throughout her homes wherever she lived, and travel. With her husband, she camped in national parks across the nation and traveled in Europe and the Caribbean. At 75, after her husband’s death, Joyce moved to Kendal at Oberlin beginning what would become an entirely new, rewarding chapter in her life. She immersed herself in audited classes at Oberlin College, sang with the Musical Union, performed with Kendal’s play readers, volunteered and traveled with Kendal friends and her children. Her legacy is the belief that old age is to be lived as vibrantly and robustly as any other part of one’s life. Joyce was born two years before women got to vote. She never missed an election; she considered voting a duty and believed justice is equal for all. She was a lifelong Democrat who often said, in a firm voice, “If history isn’t studied, it is doomed to be repeated.” The downside of living into her 100s, was the loss of the last of old friends and her generation of family. But she loved nothing better than to deal the cards for a game of Wizard or Cribbage with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren when they visited. She would declare that she wasn’t competitive, but she loved winning. A lifelong voracious reader, she read out loud to her children as they grew up and, in her last years, they read to her. She is survived by her son, Charles “Skip” Dugan (Mary) of Perry; daughters Connie Popel of New Hope, AL.; Sally MacDowell (Bill), Blue Hill, ME.; three grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. The family believes the party held for her 100th birthday, which drew family and friends from all over, remains the celebration of her long life. When it is safe to travel, immediate family will gather for a memorial. The family is grateful to Kendal at Oberlin for the happy years Joyce spent there and to the staff in Kendal’s Stephen’s Care Center for the kind and loving care they gave to her in her final years, as well as Crossroads Hospice in her final days. We, too, are grateful for staff at Kendal’s activities department for the virtual visits provided to family members who, because of the pandemic, could not be with her at the end of her life. Memorial contributions may be made to Kendal at Oberlin Employee Vacation Fund, Kendal at Oberlin, 600 Kendal Dr., Oberlin, Oh., 44074 OR Crossroads Hospice, 9775 Rockside Rd., Unit 271, Valley View, Oh. 44125.
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