Lillie Joyce Garner

Lillie Joyce Berdeaux Garner, 88, a resident of Highland Home, Alabama, passed away peacefully at Luverne Health & Rehabilitation on Saturday, April 20th, 2024. Funeral services for Joyce will be held at 2 PM on Monday, April 22nd, from the Chapel of Turners Funeral Home with Rev. Chuck Francisco officiating. Interment will follow in Rocky Mount Cemetery with Turners Funeral Home of Luverne directing. The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Monday for one hour prior to the service.

Joyce had an outgoing personality which ensured that she never met a stranger, and it helped make her career in the banking industry a rousing success through her retirement as the assistant manager of the Highland Home branch of First Citizens Bank. Otherwise, she was probably best known for her cherished role as the neighborhood "mama." It started when she became well known as "Mama Joyce" to all of her children's friends and ended up with her being "Gram" not only to her own treasured grandchildren but also to all of their friends. In her free time, she loved her sewing, but there was nothing she enjoyed more than being outside. She put an enormous amount of love and care into her beautiful flower beds and perfectly manicured yard. Any day when she could spend time peacefully enjoying the beauty of her home from her favorite porch swing was definitely a good day...though a day at the beach was always a great day! Above all, she was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother who meant the world to all those who knew and loved her.

Joyce was preceded in death by her husband, William H. Garner, and parents, O'Neal & Roween Davis Berdeaux. She is survived by her children, Brad (Dianne) Welch, Reba (Mike) Sexton, and Rana (Ricky) Roper; grandchildren, Erick (Callie) Horne, Dustin (Morgan) Horne, Jonathon Welch, Nioka Welch, Savana Roper, Tara (Brandon) Bush, Zane (Jordan) Sexton, Jeremy Kilpatrick, Brandon (Bailey) Kilpatrick, and Josh Kilpatrick; fourteen great-grandchildren; brother, Royce (Faye) Berdeaux; niece, Laurie Leatherwood; and nephew, Bill Berdeaux.

Active pallbearers will be Erick Horne, Jonathon Welch, Dustin Horne, Savana Roper, Ricky Roper, and Mike Sexton.