Joyce Saunders
03/04/2012
Joyce Saunders, Tulsa Central's first female administrator, dies at 102
Joyce Saunders was born on June 10, 1909 in Pawnee, Oklahoma, the oldest of five children to pioneer dentist Lindsey Perry Saunders and early day teacher Helen Kelly Saunders. She passed from this life on Sunday, March 4, 2012 in Tulsa, Oklahoma having reached the age of 102 years. She attended Pawnee Public Schools and graduated with the Class of 1925. She then embarked on an academic career virtually unheard of for women at the time, attending college in St. Charles, Missouri, and the University of Oklahoma where she obtained a bachelor’s degree, and in the summer of 1936 she received her master’s from Columbia University in New York. She was a member of NEA, Phi Beta Kappe, Delta Kappa, Gamma Phi Beta, Psi Chapter, and began her long career at Central High School in Tulsa. She taught typing and shorthand, twenty-five years she was an office manager, and eight years she served as an assistant principal. Upon her retirement in 1974 she pursued her passion for travel and visited locales as diverse as Europe, Asia, South America and Australia, and was very active in the Tulsa Retired Teachers Association, and has served as president, vice president, secretary, and membership chair. Joyce was honored by the Pawnee Alumni Association at several of their reunions on being the old- est alumni in attendance. She always looked forward to attending and seeing her PHS friends. Joyce is survived by: 6 nephews and nieces: Bill Young and his wife, Jennifer Zanfen Young, Shenyang China, Yorba Linda, California, Robert Young and his wife, Paula McCrackin, Rohnert Park, California, Barbara Cable Saunders Turner and her husband, Anthony, Cushing, Oklahoma, Beverly Young Elfvin and her husband, Peter, Aurora, Colorado, Kelly Saunders, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Patricia Saunders Barker and her husband, Jed, Tulsa, Oklahoma; 13 grand nieces and nephews, and 11 great grand nieces and nephews. Plus a number of other relatives, and many friends. Joyce was preceded in death by her parents, Lindsey and Helen Saunders; her sisters, Mathel (Mrs. Benjamin Walter) Young, Martha Grace Saunders, and Juneal Saunders; and her brother, Lindsey Perry Saunders, Jr. Memorial Services will be held at 1:00 p.m., Friday, March 9, 2012 at the First Presbyterian Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Graveside services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, March 10, 2012 at Highland Cemetery, Pawnee, Oklahoma, under the direction of Poteet Funeral Home, Pawnee, Oklahoma. Memorials may be made to Friends of the Tulsa City-County Library, 400 Civic Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 74103. This obituary was published in the Tulsa World on 3/7/2012.