Joyce G. Jones

Anita Joyce Gilstrap Jones, PhD, died Feb. 28 surrounded by her loving family. She was born Feb. 13, 1933, in Taylor, TX, to Johnnie and Jessie Lee Gilstrap. Joyce moved to George West, TX, at a young age and graduated from high school at 16. She earned a Bachelor of Music, Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Texas at Austin, and she earned a Master of Sacred Music from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. She was the Joyce Oliver Bowden Professor of Organ and Organist in Residence at Baylor from 1969 until her 2012 retirement. In 1954, she married Robert Jones, who was her high school sweetheart and a U.S. Army chaplain. They adopted three children while stationed in Stuttgart, Germany. Joyce excelled at cooking and gardening. She loved making jam, jelly and her famous pralines for friends and family. Her talent for growing roses was legendary; she was a longtime Waco Rose Society member and served a term as president. She was an active member of Seventh and James Baptist Church, where she sang in the choir. Joyce was preceded in death by her loving husband of 65 years, her parents, her sister and her son Jeffrey C. Jones, BBA ’85. She is survived by daughter Robin J. Edgerton of Waco; daughter Jan Brown, BSEd ’84, and her husband Greg of Mansfield, TX; daughter-in-law Julie Strickland, BSEd ’85 of Fort Smith, AR; grandchildren Russell Edgerton, Elizabeth Edgerton, BA ’10, Jordan Jones, Jenna Ogilvie, Heather Brown, Haley Brown, and Jeffrey Brown; and great-grandchildren Ryner Ogilvie and Meritt Jones.