Dorothy Joyner

Dorothy Steele Joyner WINDSOR - Dorothy Steele Joyner, formerly of Windsor, Va., died Nov. 29, 2008, in Emerson hospital in Concord, Mass., as a result of pancreatic cancer. Born in Suffolk, she was the daughter of F. Ivan Steele and Anna Belle MacDonald Steele. Dot and her husband Frank grew up together in Windsor. She graduated from Randolph Macon Woman's College with a B.A. in chemistry in 1956 and married Francis Marshall "Frank" Joyner Jr. soon after graduation. They first lived in Jacksonville, Fla., where Dot taught junior high science. They moved to Acton, Mass., in 1970. Soon after her youngest son entered school, she began volunteering in the library of the newly organized McCarthy-Towne school and served as the first paid head of the library from 1971 to 1983. She is remembered for her love for the McCarthy-Towne students and her reading to them during storytime. When a new library center wing was added to the school, she was honored to have it named for her, leading her family to kid her that she and Tip O'Neill were the only living people with a library named for them. She continued her love for library work by volunteering at the Acton Memorial Library. Dot is survived by her husband of 52 years, Frank. She is also survived by her first son, Frank and his wife Julie of Hudson, Mass., and their children, Ann, Tim and Sam; her second son, Don and wife Heather of Sudbury, Mass., and their children, Lauren and Garrett; and her brother, Frank Ivan Steele Jr. of High Point, N.C.; and several nieces and nephews. Visiting hours will be from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday in Acton Funeral Home, 470 Mass Ave., Acton, with memorial words at the conclusion. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to the Cancer Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, Director of Development, Cancer Center Development Office, MGH, 165 Cambridge St., Suite 600, Boston, MA 02114-2792, www.massgeneral.org/cancer or UMass Memorial Foundation/Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund, 333 South St., Shrewsbury, MA 01545, www.pancreaticalliance.org.