Helen Joyce Jackson

Helen Joyce Jackson, of Thornton, entered her heavenly home on March 21, 2023 at the age of 90.  Funeral services will be 10:00 a.m., Thursday, March 23, 2023 at the Central Baptist Church in Thornton with Reverend Tracy Sims officiating.  Interment will follow in the Thornton Cemetery.  Brent Mattson, Roy DeFriend, Charlie Kluck, Dennis Campbell, David Hughes, Marshall McCullen, Brian Mattson, and James Robison will serve as pallbearers.

Visitation with the family will be 5-7 p.m., Wednesday, at Blair-Stubbs Chapel in Thornton.

Joyce was born July 21, 1932 in Thornton, Texas to Alvin T. and Georgia M. (Penick) Campbell.  She lived in Thornton her entire life, graduated from Thornton High School and remained active in the Thornton Ex-Students Association.  She married James W. Jackson, Jr. on June 12, 1949 in Jewett, Texas.

Joyce had a loving, giving heart and was willing to help anyone.  Her family was her pride and joy.  She loved her children but there was nothing that could compare to becoming a grandmother and great grandmother.  She, affectionally, became known to her grands, and the rest of the world, as “Merr”, a name she was proud to be called.  Joyce was a very good cook; her specialties were homemade rolls that would melt in your mouth, apricot pies, and peach ice cream.   She also enjoyed sewing, needlepoint, quilting, and growing a 15-acre patch of cantaloupe each year.  

Joyce had a life-long fervent devotion to Jesus Christ and her church, Central Baptist Church of Thornton.  She accepted Jesus Christ as her personal Savior and was baptized into the fellowship of her church on August 17, 1941.  Her faithful service to her church began as a young mother.  It was most important to her for Bill and Carol to be taught the Bible, so she began teaching.  She taught in the children’s Sunday School department for decades, starting in the Beginners, then Primaries, and for the longest in the older children, the Juniors.  She diligently served as the summer Vacation Bible School director for many years, as well. Numerous Thornton children have been positively influenced by “Miss Joyce.”  In the late 1980s, Joyce “graduated” and began teaching the Young Married Adults, and she tirelessly continued to teach an adult class until just five years ago.  Mission work was a significant interest of hers.  She was instrumental in starting Sunbeams, an afterschool children’s missions’ program.  Because of her leadership and support of Women’s Missionary Union, her church was well informed of mission work locally, nationally and world-wide.  Over the years, Joyce served as the Central Baptist Church treasurer and on most all committees—wherever there was a need, she was willing to serve.  She cherished her church family, and her church family deeply loved her.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Alvin and Georgia Campbell; husband of 61 years, James Jackson, Jr.; children, Linda Beth Jackson, Stephen Alvin Jackson, and Carol Jeanne Jackson; brother, A. T. “Buck” Cambell, Jr.; brother-in-law, Bobby Lanier; and sister-in-law, Wincie Campbell.

Joyce is survived by her son, James “Bill” W. Jackson, III and wife, Lesa of Thornton; grandchildren, Leanne Wooten, Lindsay Henderson, and Leriny Pierce; great grandchildren, Brennan Wooten, Aaron Wooten, and Kylee Pierce; sister-in-law, Eva Jo Lanier; and several nieces and nephews.