Joyce Helen Fair

Joyce Helen (White) Fair, Age 85, most recently of Frisco, TX and Akron, OH passed away peacefully on August 28, 2025 at T. Boone Pickens Hospice and Palliative Care Center in Dallas, TX with her daughters by her side.
She was born in Cumberland, MD on May 12, 1940 to Albertus White and Helen Maxey White and was preceded in death by her brothers Wayne and Warren (Gary) White.
A member of Fort Hill High School (Cumberland) class of 1958, Joyce then went on to graduate from Frostburg State Teachers' College in 1962, while caring for two young daughters.
She was a lifelong teacher, lover of nature, and gardener extraordinaire. She was also an avid tennis player and fan, golfer, softball coach, high school musical theatre director, choir member, arts and crafts hobbyist and intrepid adventure traveler (Amazon jungle, Alaska, Turkey, Italy and the British Isles).
One of her proudest accomplishments was earning her Master's Degree in Montessori Education in preparation to teach the Montessori method in Akron (OH) Public Schools.
Joyce will be long remembered by her students for her unique and creative teaching style, including demonstrating the Monarch butterfly life cycle in her classroom. She was also well known by family and friends for her varied arts and crafts talents such as jewelry making, apple head dolls, macrame owls and Zen tangle, which she also taught to many others in her later years.
She talked to the toads in her terrarium, the birds in her backyard and was always able to attract zoo animals to come over and say hello. She thrived on sharing everything she knew and loved about nature with her daughters and grandchildren.
Predeceased much too soon by her daughter Diana, Joyce is survived by her daughters Deborah McNeff (Dayton, OH), Angela Mauermann (Frisco, TX), Alesia Coffman (Dallas, TX), Stefani Benefield (Louisville, KY) and sister Janice Leith (Cumberland, MD). She is also survived by her great grandson, Max Heller and 8 beloved grandchildren; Kathleen Beeman (Grant) of Queens, NY; Gillian Heller (Morgan) of Cranford, NJ; Brodie, Jaxson, Clay and Jacob Benefield of Louisville, KY; Keegan Coffman of Dallas, TX and Oliver Mauermann of Frisco, TX.
Joyce's family is in deep gratitude to the dedicated and caring teams at Harbor Chase Memory Care in Plano, TX and at T. Boone Pickens Hospice and Palliative Care in Dallas.
Friends and family are invited to celebrate and remember Joyce's life at the Adams Family Funeral Home, 404 Decatur St. in Cumberland, MD on Sunday, November 2, 2025 from 9:30-11:00 a.m. and are welcome to join the family for the interment of her ashes at Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church, 11509 Old Mt Pleasant Rd NE, Cumberland. To share online memories and condolences please visit www.adamsfamilyfuneralhome.com.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Heard Natural Science and Wildlife Sanctuary, McKinney, TX or Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Akron, OH (affectionally known as 'Grandma's Woods)
Online links: Donate to Heard Wildlife Museum OR Donate to Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Manual links: http://www.heardmuseum.org/donate OR http://www.conservancyforcvnp.org/