Joyce Lee moved from Centerville to Dayton when she was 9 years old. She began her fourth grade at Ruskin Elementary School. Her high school years were spent at Stivers. Joyce joined the Stivers Flying Tigers team as a freshman in ‘59/’60. Early in the spring of 1960 her coach, Joe Sullivan picked Joyce and Jake Dailey to travel to Earlham College in Indiana, to perform a 2 “man” trampoline demonstration to the assembly of students. This was the beginning of four exciting years as a gymnast! There were many meets in which she shared gold, silver and bronze medals over the years. The events included trampoline, tumbling, floor, vault and uneven bars over the last two years. Joyce, as an individual and as a part of the team, performed at some of the University of Dayton Basketball games, on TV on WLW-D and tumbled in parades in both Dayton and Columbus. They made appearances at the Masonic Temple, went to many Invitational Gymnastic Meets, such as Hamilton where other state teams were also invited. The team always did well at those meets.
Some of Joyce‘s other activities at Stivers include being on the Homecoming Court both her junior and senior years, the Queen of Hearts Court her junior year and on the Prom Court in her senior year.
After graduation, Joyce joined the Navy and became an Air Traffic Controller at Pensacola, FL. She trained in Brunswick, GA. She was offered a job at Freeport, Bahamas where, at the time, several airlines came to train their pilots … a very busy place until they built their own training facility near the Everglades. Joyce married an English pilot and moved to Vancouver, BC, Canada in 1975. She made a career change to Agriculture, divorced and moved to the little burg of Vanderhoof for a job promotion. It was in Vanderhoof that she met her “dream man”, Gordon Dickson, who worked for B.C. Hydro and ranched. They married in 1983 and live on the family farm/ranch where he is the third generation to do so. Gordie has one son, but so far … no grandchildren. Joyce flew 3400 miles to be here today – So you better believe – she’s a TIGER!
