Joan Elaine Boyd

Joan Elaine Baker Boyd, 78, of Manakin Sabot, Virginia March 25, 1947 - October 3, 2025

“Your spirit here eternally I see your halo shine. You fly into my dreams and when I am asleep I feel your wings brush against my face wiping away the tears I shed.”

Amidst the tears, we can only celebrate the beautiful life of Joan Baker Boyd as she was the most extraordinary gift to everyone who knew her, especially her children and family. There aren’t enough words to describe a life that so fully embodied the truest meaning of how to love.

Joan’s grace, selfless compassion, intelligence and sassy sense of humor will be forever missed but always remembered fondly. She will be cherished for her generous heart and sincere kindness for others…always waiting behind her bright blue eyes and mischievous grin.

We will stay close to her when we see a hummingbird, smell a rose or hear one of her many cute Southern sayings in our head for no reason at all. 

She loved the sunshine, chocolate, music of all kinds (but especially from the ‘50s and ‘60s), her kids, her grand-puppies and family the most. She loved so much about this life. 

Born on a snowy Tuesday morning on March 25th, 1947 in Logan, West Virginia to her parents Samuel Paul Baker and Rosa Etta Jacobs Baker, Joan and her family settled in Whitman, WV, off Whitman Creek Road as her childhood home.

Joan was the youngest of eight children and preceded in death by her sisters - Dorothy (Dot) Baker Meade, Pauline Baker Tomblin and Hazel Baker Helphinstine, and brothers- Eddie Baker, Jack Baker, Jim Baker and Homer Baker. 

She often spoke of her fond memories of her big family growing up. She recounted how they always celebrated the holidays together, her mom’s vegetable gardens and phenomenal cooking and baking. Some of her favorite childhood memories were of playing in the creek or riding her bike with her brother, nephew and friends.

Joan was a 1965 graduate of Logan High School and a proud Wildcat alumna who managed her class’ Facebook group for several years. She loved reconnecting with her classmates and attending their reunions.

She was the first in her family to earn her college degree in Library Science with a Bachelors and teaching certification from West Virginia University after transferring from Concord College. She worked through college in the university library where she met her first husband, Gary L. Clower, and lived in Morgantown while he finished his degree in Landscape Architecture in 1971. 

She moved to Brunswick, Ohio after his graduation where both her daughter, Jody, and son, John, were born in Medina, Ohio.

She always said her goal in life, all she ever wanted- was to be a mother. And if that’s the truth, she more than excelled. She was the biggest fan and cheerleader a kid could ever have, always encouraging you to go after your dreams, to keep working hard and to never give up. She poured every ounce of her energy and spirit into people she loved and believed in. 

Joan lived in several different states and towns over the years. Brunswick, Ohio, Hilton Head, South Carolina, Manakin Sabot, Virginia, Pfafftown, North Carolina and Manakin Sabot, Virginia once more.

In 1983, Joan married her second husband, Charles David Boyd, Sr. where she also gained a stepson, Charles D. Boyd, Jr. The family then relocated to Charles’ hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1984 to a home in the Grandview neighborhood of Pfafftown.

As her children progressed through middle and high school, she worked in several office managerial and accounting positions in the Winston-Salem area. She worked at I.L. Long Construction and Leinbach Machinery and then for many years in the family’s construction business.

In February 1989, her childhood home in Whitman, West Virginia where her mother, Rosa Etta Baker, lived was destroyed by fire so all of the family’s heirlooms and photos were sadly lost. 

Joan was an active member of Faith United Methodist Church in Rural Hall, North Carolina and teacher of the children’s choir for 15 years once her two own children left the nest. Her love of children carried through her entire life.

She and her husband, Charles, were also responsible for constructing the current church building at Faith United Methodist Church in 1995.

She was well known for her love of baking homemade pound cakes for friends, family and church bake sales - sometimes cranking out 6 or more different kinds in a day.

In 2009, her husband passed and so in 2017, she relocated to Manakin Sabot, Virginia again to be closer to her children.

She is survived by her adoring and devoted children - daughter, Jody Lynn Clower Rotman, her son, John Grove Clower V, her son-in-law, Frank Lewis Rotman, all of Manakin Sabot, Virginia as well as her grand-puppies, Evie and Nola, and her stepson, Charles David Boyd, Jr. of Indian Harbour Beach, Florida. Many cousins, nieces and nephews survive her as well.

Visitation with family will be held at James Funeral Home in Logan, West Virginia at 11 am on Tuesday, October 7, 2025 with a dedication at Highland Memory Gardens at 1 pm. 

Donations to the Alzheimer’s Association would be appreciated. It’s a heartbreaking illness and more people need to be made aware of the negative after-effects of general anesthesia in the senior population.

As Joan would always sign her cards- “Love, Luck, Laughter”