Joy Bell Haley

Joy Bell Haley, age 89, passed away Sunday, December 14, 2025, in

Nashville at Vanderbilt Hospital with her sons present.

Joy Bell was born March 8, 1936, in Philpot, KY, to Wallace Arvin Bell and Marian Moore.

Her parents passed away in 1973, her sister Joan Bell Phillips in 2001 and her husband

Robert Leo Haley, Jr. on April 9, 2023. She is survived by sons Robert, John and Paul

(Shelley) and grandchildren Sheridan and Davis Haley.

Joy attended Philpot Elementary, Russellville Grade School and Elkton High School – class

of 1954 – before earning a journalism degree from University of Kentucky in 1958.

Energetic and popular, she was a cheerleader at schools in Russellville and Elkton, and she

held every office of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority at UK. After college, she came to

Nashville where boyfriend Bob was in medical school and began to work as a proofreader

and copy writer at Harvey's Department Store. Married in December, 1959, they moved to

Augusta, GA, in summer of 1960, where Robert was born, then to Jackson, MS in 1961,

where John was born, to Fort Rucker, AL in 1962, and back to Nashville in 1964 where Paul

was born.

Keeping home in order and raising her boys was the priority. She was much involved with

her boys' schools and served as president of the PTA at Woodmont School and as

president of the Mothers Auxiliary at Montgomery Bell Academy. She enjoyed being able to

stay at home the past few years and continued actively to keep it orderly and to make

improvements.

An antique buyer and dealer, in the 1980s she was a part-owner of Pembroke Antiques on

Highway 100, and for many years she maintained an antique booth at Whiteway Antique

Mall near Music Row. She regularly participated as a dealer at the Fiddlers Show (now The

Nashville Show), and she was a key person in the start-up of the Heart of Country Antiques

Show. Her homes were featured in several magazines on home décor, notably her

Kentucky home in the October, 1993, issue of Country Living.

Visitation will be held at Neal-Tarpley-Parchman Funeral Home, 1510 Madison Street,

Clarksville, on Monday, December 29, from 9:30 to 11:00 am, followed at 11:00 am by a

funeral service of the Word, testimony, and song. Friends are welcome also at the

graveside service at Edgewood Cemetery, Trenton, KY, which will follow promptly after the

funeral.

Arrangements are entrusted to Neal-Tarpley-Parchman Funeral Home, Clarksville.

You may make memorial gifts to the Edgewood Cemetery Fund, P.O. Box 72, Trenton, KY

42286, to Forest Hills Baptist Church, Nashville, or to a place you chose.