Ona Joy Walton Terry was born November 13, 1921 in Houston Texas and passed away on Wednesday July 18, 2018 in Mansfield Texas at the age of 96. Service: 2:00 P.M. Tuesday July 24, 2018, Wiley Funeral Home, Granbury, TX.
She was married to Albert Marshall Terry for 41 years. He passed away in 1987. They had lived in Henderson Texas where he was a funeral director and embalmer. They moved to Granbury and bought a partnership in a funeral home and later established their own funeral home known as Terry Funeral Chapel.
Joy Terry graduated with two degrees from the University of Houston. Later she also added a Medical Technician degree. She taught public schools in various cities for 11 years and in 1958 joined the faculty of Tarleton State College, now Tarleton State University where she taught Chemistry for 21 years. She retired from Tarleton as an Associate Professor Emeritus of Chemistry in 1979. She went to work for Brown & Root (a division of Halliburton Company) at the Comanche Peak Nuclear Plant. Halliburton is a company that will match any donation made by an employee or retiree to a college, university of charitable organization. Mrs. Terry set up an endowment at Tarleton Chemistry Department under this matching program and has regularly contributed to it. The endowment over the years has provided scholarships to many deserving Chemistry students.
She retired from Brown & Root in 1984 and she and her husband moved to Arlington.
She was a member of the Arlington First Baptist Church, the American Association of University Professors, The American Association of University Women, the Arlington Women’s Club and the Arlington YMCA. She was a huge believer in exercise keeping the body healthy and attended the YMCA weekly. She also attended the Church School of the First Christian Church of Arlington where she loved the class in which she participated.
She was preceded in death by her loving husband, Albert Terry. She is survived by a daughter, Sharon Fitzpatrick, grandchildren and spouses, Stephen and Beth Fitzpatrick and Angela and Jeff Moberley, as well as four adorable great-grandchildren, Megan, Sarah and William Fitzpatrick and Chase Moberley. She is also survived by a sister, Johnelle Mixon and a niece, Janet Smith-Marek
and two great nieces, Shaelyn and Brianne, as well as two great great nephews.
In lieu of flowers Mrs. Terry has requested that donations be made to the Joy Terry Scholarship Fund at Tarleton State University. Checks can be sent to her scholarship fund at:
P.O. Box T-0260
Stephenville, Texas 76402
