Joy Dearmin Collins

Lenoir, NC – Joy Dearmin Collins died at 85 of natural causes on the morning of November 2, 2011 in Lenoir, NC. She passed peacefully at her home surrounded by her family. Joy was born Elizabeth Joy Dearmin on May 26, 1926, to Samuel Pinckney Dearmin and Topsia May Moorefield Dearmin. She grew up in Johnstown, near Westfield, NC, the third of Samuel and Topsia’s four children. Joy married Wesley Enoch Collins in Dobson, NC on November 26, 1945, and they had three children, Samuel Stone Collins, Jane Dearmin Collins, and Wesley Enoch Collins, Jr. Joy supported Wes through college, his armed services career, and his early training in furniture sales and manufacture on the GI Bill. She served as secretary to the president of Carolina Steel, and later as secretary to the president of Mock-Judson-Voehringer, before taking a job as teller at First Union Bank in High Point. She stayed home after their first child arrived. Joy and Wes lived in Francisco for a time, then Greensboro, High Point, and Jamestown before settling in Lenoir in 1958. Once there, Joy and Wes joined the First Presbyterian Church of Lenoir and were very active in the church’s concerns. Joy was a lifelong champion for the support, housing, and spiritual guidance of those recovering from drug or alcohol addiction. She helped establish Lenoir’s first Alcoholics Anonymous Chapter in 1978, and one of her proudest accomplishments was co-founding Caldwell House, a safe house for those recovering from alcohol and drug addiction in 1983. Joy helped establish Lenoir-Rhyne’s Drug and Alcohol School, and arranged for professional speakers from all over the USA for training and accreditation, from the late 1970s to mid 1990s. She co-chaired the committee to establish Hospice House in Lenoir, and worked tirelessly for it thereafter. She is survived by her husband, Wesley Enoch Collins, her children, Samuel Stone Collins and Wesley Enoch Collins, Jr., grandchildren Jeremy Randolph Collins, Patrick Thomas Templeton, Elizabeth Jane Templeton, Wesley Gordon Templeton, William Ethan Collins, Cassandra Marie Collins, and great-grandchildren Jacob Riley Collins and Ruth Jane Templeton. She is predeceased by her siblings Homer Wolfe Dearmin, Gwendolyn Delene Dearmin, and Melva Lee Dearmin, and by her daughter, Jane Dearmin Collins Templeton. A memorial service is scheduled at the First Presbyterian Church of Lenoir, on Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 11:00 am. A reception will follow in the church’s Fellowship Hall. Joy requested memorial donations be directed to Caldwell House, 951 Kenham Place SW, Lenoir, NC 28645, or to Caldwell Hospice, 902 Kirkwood Street, Lenoir, NC 28645. Online condolences may be sent to the Collins Family at www.evansfuneralservice.com Evans Funeral Service & Crematory of Lenoir is serving the Collins Family. PDF Printable Version