Joyce Allene Sovine

Joyce Allene Sovine, 91, of Tipp City Ohio peacefully passed away on December 22, 2024. 

Visitation will take place at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church at 753 South Hyatt Street, Tipp City, Ohio on January 3rd, 2025 at 10:30am, followed by a funeral mass at 11:30am. Burial will follow at Miami Valley Memory Gardens, 1639 E Lytle-5 Points Rd, Centerville, OH 45458. 

Joyce was born in Jenkins, Kentucky on May 17, 1933. She was the eighth of ten children born to Madison and Alta Williams. Their family moved several times before settling in Dayton, Ohio when Joyce was a child.

Joyce was working and attending University of Dayton when she met the love of her life Donald Sovine while he was working at Wright Patterson Air Force Base as an engineer. They married in 1957, welcomed their first daughter in 1959, with four more children to follow. Joyce was a homemaker which is a totally inadequate word to describe what she did on a typical day. She and Don literally built their first home which they were able to move into just prior to the birth of their second child. She raised her children with an iron fist, filled their days with chores but managed to instill a sense of fun in everything they did. She demanded obedience but loved to do crazy things like waking the kids up to a pajama “kidnapping” to go to the ice cream stand. When she wasn’t throwing one of countless children's birthday parties, she was making many of her children’s holiday clothes and loved to dress her four girls in matching outfits, always insisting on ribbons in their hair. In fact she was always ready for any neighborhood girl who needed a ribbon in their hair, which in her opinion was all of them, all the time. She insisted on education on many levels ensuring her kids could swim, play a musical instrument and participate in other activities such as sports, dance or gymnastics. She was always their biggest fan, no matter how terrible they were. 

Joyce and Don loved to travel and they took their family camping and boating every summer all over the country. By the time their kids were teenagers they had visited almost every state in the USA, many multiple times, were competent water skiers and to this day share their parents love to boat and travel. 

When the family outgrew the home they built, they settled in a large old Victorian home in Tipp City, Ohio to finish raising their children. In retirement they continued to stay active, and now started to travel further afield in the USA and internationally. They managed to visit all 50 states and several international destinations and were still traveling well into their 80’s. Joyce and Don particularly enjoyed being a part of their children and grandchildren’s lives and visited as often as they were able. 

Joyce was very proud of her technologically savvy husband and supportive of his professional life. Not a techie herself, she would often task him with geolocating their adult children, sharing social media posts with her, scanning and blowing up pictures she liked and supporting her prolific online shopping habit. It was a major blow when she lost him in May.

Joyce was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 66 years Donald Sovine in May 2024. She is survived by her children, Diana Sovine (Jeff Guarnero) of Hollywood, MD, Carolyn Lutz (Dave) of Bucyrus, OH, Teresa Hawes (William) of Greenville, OH and Daniel Sovine of Tipp City, OH. Grandchildren Brandon Sampson, Justin Sampson, Andrew Lutz, Gabriel Lutz, Reilly Guarnero and Alec Guarnero will forever cherish her memory along with many beloved nieces and nephews. She is also survived by her beloved brother Charles Williams of Beavercreek Ohio and sister Edith Crelin of Osprey, FL. She was preceded in death by daughter Susan Sovine, her parents Alta and Madison Williams, brothers Custer, Walter and James Williams; sisters Beatrice Williams, Helen Danhauer, Evelyn Huwer, and Anna Ruth Nelson Sokolsky; half-brothers Claude and Marvin Williams; and half-sister, Alta Keeton.