VADA LEWIS DECULTY

DECULTY, VADA LEWIS CONGER

105, of Bay Point, Miami, Florida, died November 21, 2025, just three weeks before her 106th birthday.

Vada Lewis Conger Deculty (known to her friends and family as Joan) was born on December 14, 1919, on a farm in Baxley, Georgia. She was the sixth of thirteen children born to Patrick and Evelyn Lewis.

Growing up on a farm during the Great Depression was hard, but the closeness she shared with her older sisters made up for the harshness of farm life. Her parents made sure that the family had enough to eat, but they lacked money for anything extra. Joan's relationship with her older sister, Alvada, offered her the opportunity to leave the farm for Miami, Florida. Alvada gave her $7.00 for a bus ticket to Miami, where Joan lived with Alvada and her husband from February to November, 1937. Joan quickly found work in a fruit shipping business, and was happy to be making $16.00 a week, a fortune in those days. But when the business closed for summer, she had to look for another job. She met Emerson Conger, who ran a food shop and asked her if she would like to work for him. The two married on November 6, 1937, and for the next five decades would work together in various businesses they owned including the food shop, a package store, The Town House motel on Biscayne Boulevard, and finally a bar and restaurant.

Joan enjoyed traveling the U.S. and Europe with Emerson. In the 1970s, they traveled to Russia, Japan, and China, places she could only have dreamed about growing up on the farm. Joan also enjoyed knitting, crocheting, growing tropical plants, playing bridge, and, above all, cooking (no one could make a better apple pie than Aunt Joan!). She loved to entertain friends and family on birthdays and holidays.

Joan was proudest of the educational accomplishments she achieved, things she never thought possible growing up in rural Georgia. She graduated with an AA degree from Miami-Dade Community College, receiving recognition for Academic Achievement. She went on to graduate from Florida International University with a Bachelor of Science degree.

All her life she helped her family – from sending money she made on that first job in Miami to help her parents on the farm, to later helping nieces and nephews pay for college, buy their first houses, and start their own businesses.

She was a member of Miami Shores Presbyterian Church, and even into her nineties was still volunteering with their toy shop, making toys for the underprivileged children of Greater Miami. Aunt Joan showed us that by working hard and believing in yourself, anything is possible.

She is predeceased by her husbands, Emerson Conger and John Deculty. She is survived by her younger brother, Edsel Lewis of Baxley, Georgia, as well as many nephews, nieces, and their many children. She is greatly missed by all.