December 4, 1927 — March 26, 2024
Born in New York City on Dec. 4, 1927, Joyce honed her skills on the monthly pages of ‘47 The Magazine of the Year. She met Raymond Paul Brenner, married and moved to Los Angeles in 1948. In Los Angeles she wrote poetry and worked in the film industry for a Beverly Hills agency, and later in advertising. She raised three children (Marc Brenner, Jan Brenner, Carol Brenner) and worked full-time for the Automobile Club of Southern California.
Retiring to Ashland in 1988, Joyce resumed her dormant career in PR, as a poet and freelance writer. Supporter of all things Ashland, she volunteered, and was part of the Ashland Chamber of Commerce and Greeters, Ashland Chamber Music Concerts, The Schneider Museum of Art, and endlessly engaged in music concerts, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Rogue Valley Symphony, ScienceWorks, and plays, and strongly supported local businesses.
Her work has been dramatized by college and university theater arts departments, and she is the author of the chapbook, “A Journey Through Life Unguarded, The Book,” and “The Stars Gave Us Names” (Trillium 1997). Her poetry, essays and profiles have appeared in West Wind Review, Southern Oregon Currents, local and regional publications and in Creative Collection, an anthology of Southern California writers. Her themes reference the common ground of journey and memory, and of history as possibility.
A lifelong learner, she attended classes, both live and online, at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Southern Oregon University, taking subjects near and dear to her heart, as well as classes that would stretch her mind with new information. She loved reading non-fiction books, and for many years was an active participant in her monthly book group sessions and local poetry group, mastering the art of Zoom in her nineties.
Two of the high points in her life in Ashland were being interviewed for the Locals Guide in June 2021, and being selected to serve, along with her good friend Mary Mastain, as Co-Grand Marshal for the 2018 4th of July parade, in which the two were chauffeured down Main Street in a 1937 Rolls Royce Phantom limousine.
After moving to Maple Ridge Senior Living in Ashland in March 2023, in her own distinct, determined manner she adapted to a new lifestyle, making new friends, going on excursions to music and theater events, hosting her poetry group, and enjoying Monday music in the dining room. Even in her final year, while residing at Maple Ridge, she continued to be delighted in music and song, and could still spout off the alphabet, backwards!
While Joyce’s passing leaves a void in the hearts of all who knew her, may her undaunted spirit, her optimism, her thoughtfulness, and her love of her family and friends endure in all whose lives were touched by hers.
Her children, Marc Brenner (Johanna Gladieux) of Lafayette, California; Jan Brenner (Stephen Banister) Nevada City, California; Carol Brenner (Jonathan Friedlander) Van Nuys, California; and grandson Michael Brenner (Andrea Brenner) Spokane Valley, Washington, thank Joyce’s many friends throughout the world, Ashland and the Rogue Valley for their friendship to her throughout her years, and for their love and kindnesses in the final months of her life.
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