Eva Joyce Quick

Eva Joyce Quick, age 90 years of Niles, Michigan, mother, grandmother, sister, seamstress, reader, and Southern Lady died peacefully at 10:31 a.m. on Monday, November 22, 2021 with family gathered around her bedside at Buchanan Meadows following a brief illness.  Her family is grateful for the kind and compassionate care provided by the staff of Buchanan Meadows and Caring Circle Hospice.

She was born on February 10, 1931 in Dyer County, Tennessee to Royce and Betty (Carlton) Williams.  In her youth she learned to pick cotton, and quickly learned that she disliked that chore, so she learned how to cook for those who would be picking cotton.  She moved from Portageville, Missouri to Niles in 1955.  In those younger years in Niles she provided babysitting services at home, and was well-known amongst family and friends for her skill as a seamstress, mending and tailoring everyday clothing, and still helping-out more recently with alterations to formal wear for weddings.

During her years in the south, Eva Joyce learned that women sewed, cooked, and cleaned, but other household chores such as home repair and maintenance – anything that required a hammer or screwdriver or paint brush – was the man’s responsibility.  She carried this culture to Michigan, including men driving cars – after helping with the lady’s door.

Eva Joyce enjoyed reading fictional mysteries and history, but was also fascinated by the Civil War and had read – and learned – about much of that history.  She enjoyed walking, sometimes at the Senior Center or at large stores, and was even known to walk outside in her neighborhood with family and friends.  She was quite a fan – a longtime fan – of soap operas, especially “The Young and The Restless”; in-fact, sometimes the Y&R Abbott and Williams families were so engrossing that the meal on the stove for the Quick family might get “extra crispy”.

On October 25, 1949 in Piggott, Arkansas – just across Missouri’s “bootheel” from Dyer County -  she married Elgy Regian Quick with whom she celebrated the remarkable forty-ninth anniversary of their wedding prior to his death on July 23, 1999.  She was also sadly preceded in death by their son, Bobby Quick on November 11, 2013; and by Eva Joyce’s brothers, Gaither Williams and James Williams, and a half-sister, Ernestine Rainwater.

Surviving family includes her children, Sheila (& Terry) Humphrey of Niles, Patricia (& Mark) McCready of Granger, Indiana, and Robin (& Mike) McKeel of Niles; grandchildren Laura (& Mike) Dierlam, Paula (& Dean) Heath, Amelia (& Tony) Vangi, Sam McCready (& fiancée Samantha Varga), Shannon (& Zachary) Luplow, Ava McKeel, and Matthew McKeel; great-grandchildren Jackson Dierlam, Hunter Heath, Drake Heath, Tucker Dierlam, and soon to be born Otto Vangi; Eva Joyce’s sister, Delores Purser of South Bend, Indiana, and many nieces and nephews.

The funeral service for Eva Joyce Quick will be at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 28, 2021 at the Halbritter-Wickens Funeral Home, 615 East Main Street in Niles with Mr. Donald Fleischman of the Fairland Christian Church officiating.  Interment will be private, on Monday, at Silverbrook Cemetery in Niles.

The family will receive relatives and friends beginning at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday at the funeral home.  Contributions in memory of Eva Joyce may be made to Buchanan Meadows, 809 Carrol Street, Buchanan, Michigan, 49107; https://buchananmeadows.com/ .  Online condolences may be left at:

www.halbritterwickens.com

Eva Joyce Quick was blessed with a long life, which she used well, learning how to work, and learning respect.  She used those traits to care for her family and raise them to value respect for others, all evidence of a life of loving the people that God has placed in our lives.