Joanna Olivia Roye

Joanna Olivia Roye was a kind and caring wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt, sister, and friend. She passed into the Kingdom of the Lord on October 12, 2023, at the age of 95. She would most aptly be described as a woman of quiet devotion. 

Joanna, known to the family as Joe, was born to John G. Boyd and Hettie Stewart Boyd on September 24, 1928, in Bracey, Virginia. She was the youngest of three girls and the twelfth of thirteen children. After graduating from Virginia State University, she married the love of her life, James Stephen Roye. They were married for 72 years. The two of them have three children: Regina (Gerard), James, and Ronald (Diane). She was also a loving grandmother of three: James, Brittany (Lucien), and Jaime, and great-grandmother to Harlow, now seven months old.

Joanna used her Bachelor of Science degree to serve as an elementary school teacher and later as a keypunch operator. She and her husband traveled extensively in their RV, exploring the United States and meeting new people.  She loved spending time emailing and chatting with her extended family, reading a good book, and “cold chilling” on the sofa with the sun shining on her face. She was active in her church – St. Paul’s Presbyterian in Livonia, Michigan, including the Women’s Circle and weekly worship. 

Joanna was preceded in death by her parents, John and Hettie; her sisters, Rosa Willis (Henry) and Mabel Feagins (Robert); and her brothers, Alfonso (Willia), Henry (Edna), Hayes (Daisy), John (Cordelia), Samuel (Justine), Harold (Rachael) Colie (Eleanor), Hart (Elsie Mae), an infant brother Harry James, sister nieces Ruth (Hoover) and Laura affectionately known as Bea. We celebrate her life and know she is enjoying the heavenly family reunion. 

She is survived by her younger brother, Ralph Boyd, and a host of Roye, Boyd, Hewlett, Taylor, Feggins, and Richardson nieces and nephews -- too numerous to name – all of whom she loved and who brought smiles to her face.  

She is absent from the body but at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). While she is now with the angels, she will be in our hearts forever.

The Visitation will be held on October 19, 2023, at 10:00, and a funeral service at 11:30 a.m. at the Manns Family Funeral Home located at 17000 Middlebelt Rd, Livonia, MI 48154 Middlebelt Road, just south of Six Mile Road.

In lieu of flowers, a memorial donation in memory of Joanna B. Roye may be made to the Breast Cancer Foundation on her behalf.