Joyce Bynum

1927 - 2016

Joyce Bynum

March 3, 1927 - May 11, 2016

Salem, Oregon - Joyce was born and raised in Brownwood, Texas with seven siblings. Her parents were Thomas William Bynum and Doris Ridley. She is survived by her brother Richard Bynum (Kathleen Matthews); daughters Lisa Lethin (Ed Bacho) and Bonnie Ayers (Rich Ayers); granddaughters: Kate, Rachel, and Nina; five great-grandchildren, and numerous nephews and nieces, with niece Carol living in Salem.

Joyce had a long and interesting life. After attending college in Brownwood and then working in Houston as a secretary, she was hired by the U.S. State Department Foreign Service, and in 1950 was sent to Germany first class on the Queen Elizabeth. While there, she learned to speak German fluently and made numerous German friends. She met and married Dr. (Capt.) Anton Lethin who was stationed in Frankfurt. After their return to the States and a short residence in Connecticut, the family moved in 1955 to San Francisco where they raised their daughters. Although the marriage ended in divorce in 1971, Joyce continued to live in San Francisco where she pursued her interests in music and folklore, as well as traveling frequently to Europe, Mexico and around the United States.

An amateur cellist and pianist, Joyce played chamber music often in her home and during various trips to Europe. Especially memorable were the musical sessions in Budapest and Vienna. While in San Francisco she played for a number of years in the San Francisco Recreation Symphony, and she was for a time the principal cellist there. She sang in small and large choruses, and she enjoyed her time with the San Francisco Choral Society where she was the tenor section leader. In 1991 she went with a group of friends to London, performing the Verdi Requiem as part of a chorus of 750, with Pavarotti as one of the soloists. As a resident of San Francisco, she was able to hear performances and attend workshops and master classes by Casals and Rostropovich. After moving to Sunnyvale, California, in 1996, she played chamber music and conducted the choir at the Sunnyvale Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. In 2007, due to a hearing loss, she was forced to finally give up her pursuit of music.

In her pursuit of folklore, Joyce received an M.A. in Folklore in 1971 from the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied under the famous folklorist Alan Dundes. She taught classes in anthropology and folklore at San Francisco State University and for several years at the University of California Extension in San Francisco. For seven years she acted as Folklore Editor and feature writer for ETCetera, the journal of the International Society for General Semantics. She published numerous articles about folklore and is cited in the Dictionary of American Proverbs.

During her working career, Joyce was employed at the University of California, San Francisco, where she became a Management Services Officer, retiring in 1991. Throughout her retirement, Joyce continued to give lectures and teach classes in folklore. She continued to tend a beautiful garden well into her eighties. For the last eight years of her life, Joyce lived in Salem. She lived her last two years at the Springs independent living apartments where she had many friends among the residents and the staff. She was a beloved member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem.

Memorial Service and Reception, Saturday, May 21st, 10:00 am at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem.