Mrs. Joyce loves kids and cooking
Joyce Raymer began working in the Pea Ridge School cafeteria part-time 32 years ago. And she’s still here loving what she does.
“It was just part time at the old school … as a dishwasher,” she said. “I wasn’t planning on working too many years because we had a dairy farm and I milked mornings. I’m a morning person.”
She thought she would do it until her kids got out of school.
“Well, my kids got out of school and I’m still working,” she smiled.
“Joyce has been here forever it seems like,” Julie Ferguson, food services director, said. “She’s always willing to help — to help the new ladies. You can ask her to do anything and she’ll do it.
“She’s a great cinnamon roll maker,” Ferguson said.
“I just love cooking and I love being around the kids,” Raymer said.
She started at the “old school” then eventually wound up at the high school.
“I just love it,” she said. “I just loving knowing … I’m here for the kids!”
“I see a lot of kids out and they holler at me and say ‘Hi, Mrs. Joyce,’” she said.
Raymer, who will be 78 in September, said working “gives me a reason to get up in the morning and go and I have my summers off and I have my holidays.”
Born and raised in Eureka Springs, Raymer (whose maiden name was David) said the building of Beaver Dam “took my mom and dad’s place.”
Joyce and Elbert “Junior” Raymer have three grown children — Tammy Smith, Kayla Raymer and Lindsay Leach. They have 10 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Some of the great-grandchildren attend Pea Ridge schools.