Joyce Poynor

View Funeral Webcast Miss Marion Joyce Poynor, 81, retired Maury County teacher, Elementary Education Supervisor, and former long-time resident of the Theta Community, died Friday, February 26, 2010, at Maury Regional Medical Center. Funeral services will be conducted Sunday at 2:00 p.m. at Oakes & Nichols with Charles Hardison and John Hayes officiating. The family will visit with friends Saturday from 4:00 - 8:00 P.M. and Sunday after 1:00 P.M. at the funeral home. Burial will follow in Sparkman Cemetery in the Boston Community of Williamson County. Memorials may be made to Beech Grove Church of Christ Building Fund, P. O. Box 55, Spring Hill 37174. Notes of sympathy may be sent to www.oakesandnichols.com. The Maury County native was the daughter of the late Henry Dewey Poynor and Mattie Sudberry Poynor. They lived in Williamson County several years before moving to the Theta Community in 1942. Her teaching career began in the fall of 1947 after she graduated from Spring Hill High School. She taught in Union, Santa Fe, Bethel, and Spring Hill schools for a number of years. She taught during every session while she attended college in summers and on Saturdays at Middle Tennessee State University while working toward her Master's Degree. She received credit for 45 hours of study beyond her Master's Degree. She worked one year as supervisor of the Tennessee Department of Early Childhood Education and helped write the guidelines for school systems for the State Department of Education. She traveled countless miles in Middle and West Tennessee helping to establish pilot kindergarten programs in public schools. Miss Poynor began work in the Superintendent's Central Office as supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction for elementary schools in Maury County in 1966 and continued in that position until her retirement in 1986 to care for her aging parents. She was an avid reader, and loved watching football and basketball, and tending her flower garden. Her priority in life was her Church and serving her God and she was a faithful member of Beech Grove Church of Christ. She did extensive genealogical research, and wrote and published a genealogy book on the Poynor, Burns, Meadows, Sudberry, and Conyer families. She was an active member of the Theta FCE Club for many years, and a member of the Maury County Retired Teachers' Association and former member of the Maury County Historical Society. Survivors include two brothers, Gayron C. (Betty) Poynor of Lexington, TN and David R. (Judy) Poynor of the Theta Community; five nieces, Mitzi (David) Pence, Melanie (Kenneth) Duncan, Joanna (Roger) Chandler, Cheryl Bowers, Gina (Derik) Rash; two nephews, Shannon (Lisa) Poynor and Kelvin Poynor; and two step nephews, David Fleckenstein and Roger (Mariel) Fleckenstein; and several cousins. Pallbearers will be Shannon Poynor, Kelvin Poynor, Roger Fleckenstein, Roger Chandler, Derik Rash, Robbie Jarratt, Frank Curry, and Tom Lawrence. Honorary pallbearers will be members of the Beech Grove and Theta Churches of Christ, Weldon Adams, Cordell Choate, J. B. West, Bobby Norman, Enoch George, Renis Baker, Henry Warf, Kenneth Duncan, Thomas Gordon, Clyde Farmer, Ed Cox, Harold Hardison, Donald Dark, Bobby Sands, Kenneth Jackson, Calvin Hardison, Donny Walters, Wilburn Kelley, Harry Underwood, Theta friends, former students, and retired teachers. The family extends their deepest gratitude to Dr. Darrel Rinehart and the staffs of Poplar Estates, Rosewood Manor, and Maury Regional Medical Center for their care and concern during her illness.