Barbara Joy Hill

Barbara Joy Hill, age 90, of Brighton passed away Wednesday, December 4, 2024. She was born in Lauderdale County on July 25, 1934. She is the daughter of the late Clyde and Kate Hall Watts.
Joy was a retired registered medical technologist and worked for Dr. Bill McCullough for over 35 years.
Joy was raised on a farm in Halls, TN and attended Halls High School. She was an outstanding student and basketball player in high school. In her senior year she made 61 consecutive free throws. She maintained a close relationship with her school friends from Halls throughout her entire life. Joy was a lover of all music, poetry and reading. Throughout her entire life she could recite Shakespeare and countless poems. Joy also loved the arts and one of her favorite things to do was to take her family to the theater. Her favorite performance was Cats and she hosted the family as recently as its last performance at the Orpheum. She passed her love of these things to her family. Each Christmas she organized a family outing to the Peabody to see the tree, the ducks and have dinner. She would tell the family that this was required because "we are Peabody people."
Joy was a dedicated University of Tennessee fan for all sports through the years. She loved going to Hot Springs, Arkansas with her sister Jerre. They would spend countless hours at the Arlington Hotel watching people in the lobby. Joy and Jerre traveled together for over fifty years. No trip was too far or too difficult for them to tackle. They looked so much alike, they were often mistaken as twins.
Joy was a devoted member of the Brighton ARP Church throughout her entire life along with her family. She was a charter member of the Alpha book club and looked forward to the monthly meetings with her reading friends.
Joy was married to Zane Hill, Sr who passed in 2020. He was the love of her life and she was his. Joy tells the story that when she was in seventh grade, she told her friends she was going to marry him, and she did.
Jerre was her only sister and passed three days before her. Joy is survived by her three sons, Zane Jr. (Tina), Casey, and Jonathan (Wendi). Her grandmother name was Mimmommy and she was loved beyond words by her grandchildren, Macy Wade (Adam), Zane Hill III (Jessica), Hillary Bellan (Brian), London Hill (Megan) and seven great-grandchildren: Molly, Marshall, Ellison, Will, Addison, Charlotte, and Sloan.
Joy instilled many principles into her family fabric. The three most frequently stated ones were these: Do what you say you are going to do, do the best you can, and never give up. There are too many wonderful things to say about our mother and grandmother, so we will close with part of a poem she frequently recited to her family:
"She was our North, our South, our East, our West. Our working week, and our Sunday rest."
Without you our Joy, Mom, and Mimmommy, we will be lost for a time, but we will find our way, because you loved us best and taught us well.
Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, December 7 at the Covington Funeral Home chapel with interment to following Salem Cemetery in Atoka. The family will receive friends two hours prior to the service at the funeral home.
In honor of Joys cheerful and sparkly personality, the family asks all attendees dress in bright and happy colors.