Mary Joyce Lawrence

Published 7:08 pm Tuesday, May 8, 2018

DOUGLASVILLE, GA — Mary Joyce Lawrence died Friday, May 4, 2018, at WellStar Douglas Hospital in Douglasville, Ga. She was 67.

Mrs. Lawrence was born in Vicksburg to the late Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin F. Jones Sr. She was a 1968 graduate of Phillip Shyler High School in Albany, N.Y.

She graduated from the State University of New York at Albany with a bachelor’s degree in library science. She later received a master’s degree from SUNY Albany University, Albany, N.Y. She did further study at Harvard University in library media. She worked 33 years for the public school in Rochester, N.Y. as a librarian specialist. She was Founder of the “Red Haters” Club, where she served for 20 years. She opened a reading book club in Rochester, N.Y., where she served in an administrative position for 25 years.

She and her husband recently located to Douglasville, Ga.

She was preceded in death by her parents and three sisters, Altha Jones Younger, Ethel Jones, and Lois Jones Williams.

She is survived by her devoted husband of 45 years, Ronald Lawrence of Douglasville, Ga; one daughter, Mariel Jessica Lawrence of Douglasville, Ga; one son, Richard Lawrence of New Orleans, La.; one brother, Benjamin Jones Sr. (Doris) of Austin, Texas; two sisters, Will Ella Jones Ladner (Gerald) of Naperville, Ill., and Nancy Jones Johnson of Vicksburg; and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Services for Mrs. Mary Joyce Jones Lawrence will be Saturday, May 12, at 1 p.m. at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Douglasville, Ga.