Joy Kimble McCabe passed away peacefully Friday, June 15, 2018, at Community Hospice & Palliative Care’s Warner Center for Caring in Fernandina Beach, Fla.
She was born September 24, 1938 to Alice and Joe Kimble. She grew up in Mt. Holly, N.J. with her parents and brother, Jerry, who is five years her junior. She was a cheerleader throughout high school. Her family went every Sunday to Sacred Heart Catholic Church, where her father was an usher and where Joy was honored in the Court of the May Queen, being crowned May Queen as a junior in high school.
Joy went on to graduate from Cabrini College in Radner, Pa. She took a job with the Girl Scouts of America, where she was responsible for hiring and training volunteers. She had been a Girl Scout in her youth.
During her employment with the Girl Scouts, Joy met Bernard “Bernie” McCabe at the Bayview on Long Beach Island. There, they enjoyed a tradition of watching the sun go down, even standing on chairs to catch the last rays as the sun set beyond the horizon. After several years of dating, Joy and Bernie were married April 15, 1968, at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Moorestown, N.J. In 1972, they bought their first house in Riverton, N.J., having saved enough to pay half the total cost.
In the early 1970s, Joy began a career at RCA in Camden, N.J., working in human resources at the Aerospace Center. While the names and corporate logos on her business cards changed throughout the years with mergers and buyouts, Joy continued in human resources for General Electric, Lockheed Martin and Martin Marietta.
Joy’s loyalty to her work persisted not only through the changes of company names but also through the changes in location. When Joy was transferred to Bethesda, Md. in the early 1990s, she went. Joy insisted she be allowed to travel from New Jersey because she was caring for her aging mother. She would board the train on Mondays and return on Fridays.
Joy often gravitated to the beach over her lifetime. Beginning in the 1960s, she would spend any available time at Long Beach Island, a tradition she and Bernie continued over the course of their marriage. They even bought a house on Long Beach Island in 1980. When Joy retired in 1997, she and Bernie built a house and moved permanently to Amelia Island, Fla.
For over 20 years they enjoyed living on Amelia Island and became part of that community. Joy used her wealth of corporate experience to help out on several boards. Her work on the Hospital Auxiliary Board, with the Amelia Island Museum of History, and with Micah’s Place was something she felt strongly about. She felt deeply the work was important and hoped her efforts honored their individual causes.
After battling breast cancer successfully in 1997, Joy was affected again in 2010 but more severely. She kept up a noble and determined fight against the cancer for eight long years.
Joy is survived by her husband of 50 years, Bernie; her brother, Jerry Kimble and wife Bunny; her niece and nephew, Shell and Jeremy; a sister-in-law, Joan Rossler; and many extended family members and friends.
A service celebrating Joy’s life will be announced at a time in the near future.
Please share your memories and condolences at www.oxleyheard.com.
Oxley-Heard Funeral Directors