Joyce Anne Graybiel Temby
April 21, 1930 – August 29, 2022
Joyce Anne Graybiel was born to Lloyd and Jessie Cook Graybiel in Oakland, CA. She went to Crocker Highlands Elementary, the school her children later attended. During WWII, she volunteered for the ration-board, rolled bandages, and was pen-pal to a soldier in the South Pacific, with whom she maintained contact for the rest of his life. Class of ’47 at Piedmont High School, she subsequently graduated, with a BA in Education, from Stanford University in 1951.
She married a handsome Stanford SAE, Ensign Donald Temby, in 1952, embarking upon a wonderful 67.5-year marriage. Upon Don’s return from his Navy tour in 1954, the couple relocated to La Mirada, CA, where their first child, Claudia, was born. Their next home was Orange, TX, where daughter Ellen arrived during a hurricane; Joyce loved to tell stories about the storms, floods and marauding crocodiles.
The following decade saw much packing and unpacking as the Temby’s moved to a house in Oakland across the street from Joyce’s childhood home, then lived for two years in Vitoria, Spain, where Don operated a plastics factory. Joyce, with four kids in tow – twins Paul and Chris having been welcomed to complete the family – was fearless, traveling by ocean-liner from San Francisco to Spain to meet Don. (Two of the four were in diapers and with safety leashes!) While there, she basked in the Basque culture, honed her Spanish skills, and had many European adventures.
Back to Oakland, then beautiful Vancouver, Canada, and eventually to Walnut Creek, where she taught Spanish at Los Cerros Middle School, chaperoning students to Mexico and Spain. She worked nights with the Suicide Prevention Hotline. A truly caring soul, over the years, she also offered sanctuary to others including her niece, Susan, assorted foreign-exchange students, and a newly-orphaned classmate of Ellen’s.
In 1989, Joyce and Don relocated to Cincinnati, OH for four years, exploring the Midwest and East, enjoying river cruises, and even going to the Stanford/Notre Dame football game in Indiana. Having finally returned to the Oakland home, in classic Joyce style, she filled her days with social activities and volunteerism. She served for twenty years as a tax preparer for Spanish-speaking clients, went to virtually every Stanford football home game, and helped organize Stanford Class of ’51 reunions. She had Bridge gatherings, a tailgate gang, and a Kentucky Derby ladies’ group, and belonged with Don to both a gourmet-dinner and an itinerant wine society. Joyce was an ardent member of the American Association of University Women and of the East Bay Stanford Women’s Club. She cherished being a docent at Mountain View Cemetery for two decades. She “knew” all the famous and prominent residents at the cemetery, sharing interesting and sometimes off-color stories on her tours.
Joyce was exuberant, funny, talented, intelligent, loyal, kind, and generous; she was a fly fisher, a great listener, a die-hard Stanford fan, very popular and so much more. She passed peacefully at home at age 92, with family near, after a short battle with lung cancer.
Predeceased by son, Christopher (2019), and husband, Don (2020), she is survived by daughters Claudia Temby and Ellen Temby (Chuck Ginsburg), son Paul Temby (Dayna Arnstein-Temby), and three grandchildren.