Graveside services for Joyce Harrison will be held at 2 PM Saturday, November 28, 2020 at Greenleaf Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 4-6 pm Friday at Davis-Morris Funeral Home. Mrs. Harrison passed away Tuesday morning.
Joyce Manwaring Harrison was born in Reading, England, on November 23, 1925, to Thomas Frederick Manwaring and Florence Annie Beason Manwaring. The youngest of eight children, she grew up during World War II, where several of her siblings served in the armed forces. Throughout her life, Joyce demonstrated the strength, courage, and gratitude she learned from her family and her times.
In 1950, she emigrated from England to the United States to be with her sister and best friend, Sylvia, who had married an American serviceman and was living with her husband and three children in Central Texas. Joyce worked at Palace Drugstore in Brownwood, where she learned American money by working the cash register; she eventually worked at the local telephone company, where she delighted people with her beautiful accent and made lifelong friends. Always connected to her community, Joyce joined the Episcopal Church and the Community Playhouse, where she met the love of her life, Gilbert N. Harrison, Jr., the city attorney for Brownwood. In December 1955 they married, and eventually had three children, Sarah, Penelope, and Gilbert Nicholas (Nick).
Joyce loved music, ballet, friends, and family. She served the community as a volunteer for the schools, the church, and the hospital. She was a naturalist at heart, and was fascinated by all manner of flora and fauna wherever she went. Her knowledge of native plants and Texas wildflowers was extensive, as was her love of birds, whether in her garden or in the woods.
Joyce (also known by her nickname “Docie”) was preceded in death by her parents, her siblings, and her husband. She is survived by her children Sarah (husband, Thomas Fair, Denver), Penelope (Denver), and Nick (wife, Kay Ballard, Benbrook), her granddaughter Belle Harrison Fair (Denver), her nephews, Roger Richey (New Braunfels ), Robert Richey (Austin), James Richey (Arlington), Michael, Tony, and Tim Feest (England), Jonathan Winocour (Dallas), Franklin Jones III, (Marshall); Marshall P. Cloyd (Houston), nieces Terry Bolger (Heath), Elizabeth Dezille, Tina Feest, & Phillipa Jones (England), Nicola Manwaring (France), and numerous great nieces and nephews.
The family wishes to thank everyone for loving Joyce, most especially her many friends, the staff at The Chatfield and Solaris Hospice Care, and the staff at Hendricks Hospitals in Brownwood and Abilene.
To remember Joyce is to see her smile, hear her laugh, enjoy her cooking, or share tea time on her porch. Please remember Joyce with a charitable contribution to the Corinne T. Smith Animal Center (3016 Milam Drive, Brownwood TX 76801; www.ctsanimalctr.org) or to a cause of your choice.