JOYCE JUDKINS BOOTH
1930-2019
Joyce Judkins Booth died on Monday, 3 June 2019, at her home in Houston, Texas, after a long and courageous battle with Parkinson’s Disease and pneumonia.
Joyce was born in Pilot Point, Texas, and was the loving daughter of Dr. Oscar Hunt Judkins, co-founder of Baptist Memorial Hospital in San Antonio, and Corinne Russell Judkins of San Antonio, Texas, descendant of one of Texas’ oldest ranching families. Joyce’s great grandfather, J. Oliver Russell, co-founded the city of Denver, Colorado in 1858 before moving to Menard, Texas after the Civil War.
Her grandfather, Richard Robertson Russell, founding member of the San Antonio Country Club, expanded the family ranch holdings to over two million acres, including the Big Canyon Ranch in Terrell County and the Rocking “R” Ranch in Schleicher County.
After attending St. Mary’s Hall in San Antonio from elementary through high school and then Pine Manor Junior College outside Boston and the University of Texas in Austin, Joyce made her debut in San Antonio in 1949.
Her first marriage, to
USAF Lt. Colonel James W. Braly, aide and pilot to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, ended in divorce.
Joyce lived a long, tumultuous, fascinating life that featured travel, beauty and cards. As a young mother, she lived in England and France. She collected art, loved flowers and was a voracious reader. She was a Life Master bridge player and, until her final days, a familiar face at the craps tables in Las Vegas.
But her greatest passion, besides her children and their families, was the island of Maui, where she lived on the beach for 31 years, power walking at dawn, joining friends at sunset, and – after she was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer in
1986 - meditating on the volcano Haleakala, which she credited with helping her beat her prognosis, which she considered her single greatest achievement after raising four children.
She is survived by three of her four children: Corinne Russell Braly Williams of Houston, Texas; Terrell
Alfred Braly of Charleston, South Carolina; and James Hunt Braly of Hudson, New York. Her daughter, Kathryn Ragan Braly of Maui, pre-deceased her, as did her beloved husband, William Melmoth Booth Jr., past President of the Student Government at University of Texas. An identical twin, Jean Judkins Jensen, also survives.
Joyce leaves behind six grandchildren: Vanessa Carolyn Rankin of Austin; Jennifer Patricia Braly of Boston; Edward James
Braly of Denver; Ivy Hunt Braly of Charleston; Oliver James Wendell-Braly and Henry Owen Wendell-Braly of Hudson; as well as four great-grandchildren: Scarlett Alexandra Rankin and Gwendolyn Rose Rankin of Austin, and Elyana Mae Braly and Aleah Teralyn
Braly of Denver.
Joyce died as she had lived: gracefully, humbly and with great appreciation for those who sustained her, particularly in her last days. Besides her beloved daughter, Corinne, with whom she lived for over 20 years, her home, body and spirit were tended with love for many years by Lois Bradberry, her companion and housekeeper. The family is also grateful to Kindred Hospice for their comfort care, which allowed Joyce to spend her last days in her own home surrounded by those who loved her, including her two cats, Bitti and Maximillian, who never left her side.
Joyce’s ashes will be interred in a private family service and ceremony at her beloved Figure 3 Ranch in Schleicher County, Texas, where her mother was born and where Joyce spent many summers of her youth.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation in her name to your favorite charity or local animal shelter.
We will dearly miss our beautiful and irreplaceable Mother, Grandmother and Great-Grandmother. Though born a twin, she lived and died one elegant lady in a million.