Dozens of people have enjoyed visiting, talking or at least texting daily for many years with Joyce Brown Hayes Davis of the Boynton community in Ringgold.  They become anxious if she doesn’t respond right away. This is a difficult time for them.

She died Tuesday of complications from congestive heart failure. She was 81.

She worked more than 30 years as a bookkeeper for a manufacturing company. She served for more than 30 years as a volunteer treasurer of a church she co-founded, John Calvin Presbyterian Church, which later became Christ Fellowship, 1176 North Three Notch Road in Ringgold. She was ordained as an elder there. She has lived in the same house in the Scenic Hills neighborhood since 1978.

The comment people have most often made about her – co-workers, relatives, strangers -- is that she was among the kindest people they ever met. What they may not know is that she said the same of them – all of them. She had a talent for bringing out the best in people by giving the best to them. Some of those who appreciated her had differences with each other, but she was a uniting force, focused always on the good in all. So she lived surrounded by kindness. She took great comfort in her faith and lived it, loving the Lord her God with all her heart, and her neighbors as herself, as her beloved Jesus commanded.

She was widowed twice. Her first husband was Thomas Hayes, her children’s father. He died in 1966 when she had just turned 30. She went to work in an office for $1 an hour, bought a 1950s ranch home on Boynton Drive and by herself raised the first college graduates on either side of her family.

After her children grew up, she married again, to Duncan Davis, formerly of Miami, whom she met through work – but only after he agreed to move to Boynton because she refused to leave. She was a devoted wife to him for 30 years, until his death in 2007.

Her parents were Katheryn and Fernie Brown of Rockmart, Georgia, who were also known for their kindness.

She is survived by her son, Farrell Hayes of Chattanooga, whose wife is Susan Hayes, her daughter, Katheryn Tucker of Sautee, whose husband is Tim Tucker, seven grandchildren – Lauren Hayes, Reed Hayes, who is married to Katherine Hayes, Ansley Tucker, Sydney Tucker, Veronica Hayes, Thomas Hayes and William Hayes – plus one great-granddaughter, Emma Skye Hayes Dingman.

She is also survived by her sister, Jane Tibbitts of Dallas, wife of Fed Tibbitts, four nieces – Susan Bowman, Sonya Thomason, Shelley Leggett, Shawn Hearst – and many great nieces and nephews.

Friends and family are invited to gather to celebrate her life with a visit between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday at Heritage Funeral Home & Crematory, 3239 Battlefield Parkway in Fort Oglethorpe, a worship service there at 4 p.m. and a graveside ceremony afterward at 5:15 p.m. in the Baxter Addition of Anderson Cemetery in Ringgold. She asked to have her ashes placed in the space between her two husbands.

As her loved ones grieve their loss, many have expressed the same thought, wishing they could have had more time with her and done more for her. She would want them to hear these words she spoke in her last days: “You have been here when you could be, and when you needed to be. You have done everything you can for me. You are wonderful. I love you.”

Arrangements by Heritage Funeral Home, Battlefield Parkway.

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