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Joy Coleman Henry, a sixth generation Mississippian and a ninth generation American, died on Easter Sunday, March 27, 2016, with the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection. Mrs. Henry was born on July 21, 1928, near Shivers in Simpson County, Mississippi in the house that her pioneer ancestors had built a century earlier. Her parents were George Anselm Coleman and Inez Myers Coleman.
Mrs. Henry grew up in Magee. As a child she possessed such a beautiful singing voice that she had her own show on a Jackson radio station where she was billed as “The Songbird of the South.” She even went to New York and sang as a contestant on the nation-wide radio program “Major Bowes’s Original Amateur Hour,” which was a predecessor to the current television show “America’s Got Talent.”
In 1950 Mrs. Henry graduated from Mississippi State College for Women (now Mississippi University for Women). For the rest of her life, she was proud to be known as a W Girl. A year later in 1951, Mrs. Henry married John K. Henry, M.D.
Then in 1962 Mrs. Henry and her family moved to Louisville, Mississippi, where she was active in the First Baptist Church and the Dancing Rabbit Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Mrs. Henry always enjoyed a good cup of coffee, a good game of bridge, and a good Mississippi State football game. She lived in Louisville for more than fifty years until failing health forced her to move to the Arbor in Ridgeland.
Mrs. Henry was predeceased by her parents, her husband, and her son, Matthew Wayne Henry. She is survived by her daughter, Lea Henry Mols, and her husband, Chuck Mols, of Tupelo; and, by her son, Mark Henry, and his wife, Kathy Gray Henry, of Brandon, and by their children, George Mark Henry, Jr., M.D., of Richmond, Virginia, and Elizabeth Gray Henry of Washington, D.C.
Visitation will be Friday, April 1, 2016, from 2 pm until 3 pm at the Nowell-Massey Funeral Home in Louisville, followed by graveside services at Memorial Park Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Mississippi University for Women.
Services are under the direction of Nowell-Massey Funeral Home, 724 North Columbus Avenue, Louisville, MS. Memories and condolences may be shared with the family by signing the guest register at www.nowellmasseyfuneralhome.com.
Nowell-Massey Funeral Home
Louisville, MS
