TRIBUTES TO EX-COUNCILLOR JOYCE WHO LOSES VIRUS FIGHT
A dedicated former councillor who served her community for more than three decades has lost her fight with coronavirus.
Joyce Blackburn represented the Easington Lane ward on Hetton Town Council for more than 30 years, retiring after she suffered a stroke seven years ago which left her partly paralysed.
She passed away at The Laurels Care Home in Hetton last Thursday, April 2, shortly after her 94th birthday.
Son James, himself a Sunderland city council member and Hetton councillor, paid tribute to the care she had received.
“Mam didn’t go to hospital, she was too frail,” said James, who has just come out of isolation after visiting his mother.
“The GP felt they could not do any more for her in hospital, they would not have been able to put her on a ventilator.
“So The Laurels looked after her and did a great job.
“She had her 94th birthday on March 15, so she had her birthday and she had Mother’s Day, then on April 2, she passed away.”
Joyce and husband Sam clocked up more than six decades on the council altogether: “Between them, they did over 65 years with Hetton Town Council,” said James.
“He and mam were steeped in Easington Lane, in the school and being a councillor
“My dad was a past chairman.
“He got a letter from Tony Blair because there were four generations of the family in the Labour Party.
“Mam went onto the council in December 1981.
“And she was on there until about a year after her stroke, which would be about 2014. The council gave her an exception so that she did not have to put an apology in for her absence.
“They accepted that she was not going to be able to attend.”
And it was not just party membership that was a family matter: “Mam used to be a caretaker at Easington Lane Primary School.
“She took over from my dad, who took over from my grandad,” said James.
Joyce is also survived by son Ron, daughter Corrine and numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
A family funeral service will be held at Sunderland Crematorium on April 23 with donations to The Laurels.