There is a poem entitled "The Dash Between the Dates," and I think it is a very fitting tribute to Joyce. The poem states that upon every headstone there are epitaphs, and on each stone the date of birth and the date of death with just a dash between. The poet goes on to say that it matters not when we are born or when we die, but what does matter is how we live during the dash between the dates. Joyce's dash was filled with doing things for God, her family, her church, her community and the school system of Green County. We started out as teachers in the one room schools of Green County. Then in 1945 I became the Superintendent of Schools, and Joyce became the Attendance Officer, a term later changed to Pupil Personnel Director. Our office was in one room at the Green County Courthouse. We visited the one room schools, 60 white, 10 black, at least twice a year over unpaved roads, up hills, down hollows and across creeks. I remember one time when we visited Bloyd's Bluff on Brush
Creek. Upon climbing the Hill where we had left our car we discovered we had a flat tire. No one was anywhere around. I asked Joyce, "Can you fix a flat tire?" She said, "I never have, but if we are going to get out of here I had better learn fast." I stood on the bank watching and giving advice which did not even fit the occasion. She fixed the tire. The moral of the above is that whether the task was large or small, Joyce could always figure out how to get it done. In 1952 due to the burning of the Greensburg School, the city asked to merge with the county Board of Education. After building the present Greensburg Elementary School we moved our office to a room in the school where we stayed until I retired in 1979. We consolidated our one-room schools, built all the schools except the middle school, integrated schools and teachers, started transportation with three new buses, survived the oil boom with an influx of new students, began Head Start, Title One and other new good programs. Joyce was made Finance Officer and Genevieve Adkins was brought in as Pupil Personnel person, a welcomed addition to the office. Now in place of a pair, we were a threesome, and I can truthfully say there was never a cross word or any friction, although we were in close quarters, three women in one room. Joyce was good in figures. She did our budgets. We never overspent. When you pick up the Courier Journal today you see where some school has spent too much money. We were very careful. Our treasurer, Ike Durham, said he was never afraid to approve anything we sent over, because he knew it would be right. Joseph Wilcoxson, a minister at Joyce's funeral, said that when he was a little boy she was his Sunday School teacher, and little did he know then that one day he would preach her funeral and she had helped mold him into the person he had become. I don't know that I ever told Joyce and Genevieve how much I appreciated them. We were too busy. Many times when I was interrupted, Genevieve would come to my desk, pick up my work, take to her desk and finish it. Maybe Genevieve will read this. Joyce and I didn't have to talk much. After 34 years together we knew what each one was thinking.
by Lucile Guthrie
Obit
Mrs. Joyce Froggett, daughter of the late Edgar Judd and Aury Clark Judd, was born April 6, 1915, in Green County and departed this life on January 31, 1997, at the University of Louisville Hospital in Louisville. She was 81 years, nine months and 25 days of age. She had made a profession of faith in Christ and was a member of the Liletown United Methodist Church. She retired from the Green County school system where she served as the finance officer and also a teacher for several years. She united in marriage to Paul Froggett on August 26, 1933, who survives. To this union were born two sons: Joe E. Froggett of Greensburg and Sammy Froggett of Green County. She is also survived by three grandchildren: Alan Froggett, Shawn Ford and Carol Ann Harmon, all of Greensburg; two great-grandchildren: Jordan Harmon and Jessica Harmon, both of Greensburg, and a host of other relatives and friends, The funeral services for Mrs. Joyce Froggett were conducted at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, February 2, at the Cowherd & Parrott Funeral Home with burial in the Liletown Cemetery. Rev. Paul Mills, Revs. Leo Curry and Rev. Joseph Wilcoxson officiated. Active pallbearers were DeWayne Harmon, Hurt Jeffries, Grady Thompson, Alan Froggett, Jimmy Wilcoxson, Jody Ford and Bobby Joe Beard. Honorary pallbearers were David Froggett, Marshall Lowe, Weldon Tucker, J.B. Henderson, Truman Clark, Clavis Judd, Shively Mitchell, Smith Tucker, Hobert Judd, Delbert Robertson, Ike Durham, Bloyd Tucker, Morris Butler and Jimmy Judd.
Obituaries of Green Co. Ky. Vol. 8, compiled by Eunice Montgomery Wright, p. 75