Helen Ford Joyce

Helen Ford Joyce —born July 22,1923, passed peacefully into eternity on July 24, 2016 at the Foulk Manor North Health Care Facility in Wilmington, Delaware, where she lived the last 15 years of her life.

Born in Norwood, PA, Helen attended St. Gabriel’s Middle School, School of the Holy Child in Sharon Hill, and graduated from Rosemont College in 1945. She taught Latin at Notre Dame High School in Rose Valley, worked at Dr. Lightner Whitmer’s school for mentally handicapped children in Devon, and then at the Gertrude A. Stewart School in Springfield. She worked with the mentally handicapped until the mid-1990’s.

An aspiring opera singer, Helen joined The Savoy Opera Company, performing Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, where she met Thomas James Joyce. They were married in 1950, lived in Overbrook until 1955, and moved to Swarthmore, where they raised six children. She sang in the Pennsylvania Opera Company, the Rose Valley Chorus, and the Valley Voices. She was also a Cantor at Notre Dame DeLordes parish in Swarthmore.

She is survived by her children: Tom, David (Leslie), Peter (Melinda), Michael (Maryann), Mary Alderfer (Ken) and James (Barbara); her eleven grandchildren: Nicholas, Thomas, Kenneth Alderfer, Eli, Daniel, Brian, James Alderfer, Elena, Sarah, Hope and Anne; and one great-grandson, Landon.

An evening viewing will be held from 7-9 PM on Friday, July 29 at the McCrery & Harra Funeral Home, 3924 Concord Pike, Wilmington, DE 19803. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Saturday, July 30 at 11 AM at St. Kevin’s Church, 200 W. Sproul Rd., Springfield, PA 19064. Visitation prior to Mass begins at 10 AM. Interment in Arlington Cemetery. In lieu of flowers the family suggests donations in Helen’s name to the Multiple Sclerosis Society 2 Mills Road, Suite 106, Wilmington, DE 19806

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