Funeral services for Joyce Ann Hovas Sanders of Madison will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 4, in the Oliver Funeral Home Chapel, with burial following at Poplar Springs Cemetery near Kilmichael. Mr. Durwood Stanton will officiate the services. Pallbearers will be Joe Foy, Allen Hovas, Kenny Sanders, Forrest Edwards, Bobby Dillion, and Todd Hovas.
Visitation will be held Thursday, January 4, from 10:00 a.m. until service time at Oliver Funeral Home.
Joy was born at home in Kilmichael, Mississippi to parents of Percy Carl and Lora Dewett Hovas on Route 2. Joy had an ongoing battle with COPD for years and pneumonia since last September but was a trooper. After 7 weeks in the hospital and 4 weeks in rehab, she got to go home. After being home for three weeks in Hospice and enjoying it greatly, finally she succumbed to the disease. Joy went to her Heavenly Father on Friday, December 29, 2023.
Joy was the mother of Kenneth Albert, Sheila Joyce and last but not least Carl D. Sanders, which she considered her greatest accomplishes on this earth.
Joy was a homemaker and a military wife. The family traveled all over the United States to Army and AirForce Bases including a couple of years in Panama Canal Zone, always coming back home to her home state and hometown.
Joy was able to be at home her last days and work her jig saw puzzles, word seek puzzles, crocheted some things and rearranged everything in her clothes drawers and put back just the way they were but she was happy. Also watching all of the Jack Hanna animal shows on tv she got hooked on in rehab. Since her memory was fading at times (the family had seen the same shows at least 1000 times) but to Joy they were new, and she enjoyed them.
A special thanks to all my cousins who have helped throughout these troubling times. You know who you are. I couldn’t have made it without your help. A special thanks to Cousin Emily and her friend Lynn for such loving and compassionate care of our beloved mom (mom kept them on their toes and sometimes may have enjoyed that a little too much). God’s loving grace!
Mom’s favorite quote by Alex MacLean, which she kept folded in her Bible, read
Those we love don’t go away.
They walk beside us every day.
Unseen, unheard, but always near.
Still loved, still missed, and very dear.
Joy was preceded in death by her parents, Percy Carl and Lora Dewett Hovas; husband, Lewis Albert Sanders; stepson, Lewis Albert Sanders, Jr., and sisters, Faye Hovas King and her husband Bernice and Floyce Joan Hovas Collins and her husband Lee Dell.
Joy is survived by her daughter, Sheila Joyce Rhodes (Mike); sons, Kenneth Albert Sanders (Melody) and Carl Douglas Sanders (Donna); brother, DD Hovas (Ruth); six grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren; numerous nieces, nephews and great grand nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers the family is requesting you please send in memory of Joyce Sanders a memorial offering to Poplar Springs Baptist Church, Cemetery Fund, 709 Ridge Road, Kilmichael, MS 39747.
Oliver Funeral Home of Winona, Inc. 