Joyce O Read's Obituary
Who was the sweet lady you knew as Joyce Read and I knew as Mom?
Born in 1927, Joyce Bendix was the 10th of 12 children born to a Norwegian couple on a small family farm in remote northern Minnesota. They had no electricity and she was educated in a one-room schoolhouse. When she was older, she boarded the bus very early Monday mornings and was driven 30 miles south to high school in the small town of Deer River and finally returning home after class Friday afternoon.
After graduation, her family encouraged her to go to college, but she was very independent-minded and she married her boyfriend instead.
Eldy St. Peter was nearly twice her age and, at 5' 4", was a man she could look up to. They had two sons Elden who was a baker, Navy veteran, and fishing guide before dying young, and Dale who is married and worked as a product development engineer.
Joyce was widowed at age 39 and Dale left for college the next year. Being an intelligent and independent woman who knew winter would arrive soon, Joyce decided to move to St Petersburg.
In Minnesota and in St Pete she worked as a secretary and bookkeeper. After earning her bachelor's degree in social work she worked for the Juvenile Services Program in St Pete.
In 1993 she married Albert Read (d. 2015) and became stepmother to his adult children.
Joyce is survived by her sister Eloise (Dean) Ellis, son Dale (Jean) St Peter, grandsons Steven (Kate) and Christopher (Lisa), six great-grandchildren, step-children Ralph Gibson, Elizabeth Pulver, and Neil (Sallie) Gibson, grandchildren Sam and Victoria Gibson, Dr. Charles Carrignan, and Michael (Robin) Gibson, several step-great-grandchildren, several nieces and nephews, and many good friends including those at Magnolia Gardens, the Suncoast Cathedral Silver Saints, and Glad Tidings church.
Remembrances can be made to the Magnolia Gardens (memo line:"employee fund") or to Suncoast Cathedral (memo: Silver Saints and send to attention Dave Bussinger.)
Magnolia Garderns ALF
3800 62nd Ave N
Pinellas Park, FL 33781
Suncoast Cathedral
2300 62nd Ave N
St. Petersburg, FL 33702
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