Joy Blanchette

Elsie Joy Blanchette, age 84, of Alford, FL, went peacefully and joyfully into the presence of her Savior during the early morning hours of Tuesday, December 28, 2021, while at her home. She was born on May 6, 1937, in Miami, FL, to Lora (Starling) and Bunyan Brown. She was preceded in death by her son Dale Blanchette, and her older sister Nancy Eggler.

She is survived by her husband of 66 years, Jerry Blanchette of Alford, FL, daughter, Teri Blanchette of Alford, FL; sons, Joey (Rose) Blanchette of Bonifay, FL, Ricky (Kathy) Blanchette of Alford, FL, and Robby (Sherri) Blanchette of Deerfield Beach, FL; 11 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren as follows- through Teri are Robbie Joynt and his children Zachary and Katie, Geoffrey (Aubrey) Joynt and his children Jack, Owen, and Finn, and Sean Joynt; through Joey are Cheri (Andrew) Hobbs and her children, Shannyn and Jocelyn, Jared Blanchette, and Randall (Lauren) Blanchette and his children Samantha, Luke, and Sara; through Ricky are Sandy Blanchette and her children Christopher, Emiliana, and Sophira, Ricky (Leigh Ann) Blanchette Jr and his children Norah and Hendrix, and Becky Blanchette; and through Robby are Robert Blanchette and Amelia Blanchette.

Funeral services will be 2 PM, Monday, January 3, 2022 at New Hope Reformed Baptist Church, 4028 Lafayette Street, Marianna, FL, 32446, with Pastor Brandon Griffin officiating. Burial will follow in New Hope Baptist Cemetery with James & Sikes Funeral Home Maddox Chapel directing.   The family will receive friends at 1:00 PM, one hour prior to the service at the church.

Eulogy-

The First One That We’ll See

A Good Word by Joy’s grandson, Geoffrey Joynt

My grandmother, Elsie Joy Blanchette, was born in Miami, FL, in the heart of the Great Depression. The years leading up to her birth had not been easy for her family. In September of 1935, the most powerful hurricane in Florida’s then young history had ripped across the Keys claiming over 400 lives. Joy’s parents and older sister had been spared along with many other pioneer families in Miami, but soon shock and devastation would bring its own kind of storm when Joy’s mother, Key West native Lora Brown, would hear the news of several family members who had died. In November of 1937, the cremated remains of many victims were placed in a monument at Florida Keys mile marker 81.5. But just 6 months earlier, on May 6th 1937, Bunyan and Lora Brown would become the humbled parents of their second daughter, who, though she would be named Elsie, would always be known as Joy.

Young Joy would come to know Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior while residing in Dade county. As a teen she would go on to attend and graduate from Miami Edison, but not before she would catch the eye of a WWII veteran, Jerry Blanchette, when attending a Miami Edison football game in the old Orange Bowl. The two married in 1955, and within three years they would find themselves attending Bible College in Atlanta with two young children in tow. As their call into the ministry began to take further shape, they began missionary bootcamp training in the early 60s; first in Florida and then later moving on to Wisconsin, where by the end of 1963 they would have four children in tow. History would like us to believe that Americans of this generation were protesting the war and caravanning towards a farm in Woodstock, NY. But during the 60s the Blanchettes were advancing the Kingdom of God in a foreign land, and at the end of the decade Joy was in Brazil giving birth to baby number five.

When Joy was in language school back in Waukesha, WI, she would earn high marks as a linguist. She diligently applied herself to mastering fluency in the Portuguese language, as well as mastering the difficult tonal language of the Gavião, an indigenous tribe near the small town of Rondônia, Brazil, who Joy and Jerry would help win for Christ during the majority of their time as missionaries. Because of her skills Joy became a key contributor to the monumental task of translating the Bible into the Gavião language. Before returning to the States in the early 70s, Joy and Jerry would get to see and savor the fruit of their labors as the entire Gavião tribe had not only become followers of Christ, but had also become missionaries to other uncivilized, murderous tribes. Over the next 30+ years God would use the Gavião as His instruments to redeem over 15 indigenous spread throughout the Amazon jungle.

Nearly every morning of her adult life, Joy could be found in her living room reading her Bible and writing in her prayer journal. Joy was a great memorizer of the Bible and she knew how to use it both to encourage herself and others. “Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your might,” is a verse from Ecclesiastes Joy learned from her mother that one might hear her recite from time to time, or see her live out through her good deeds. After Brazil Joy and Jerry found their family hurled back into an unfamiliar America, and busier way of life. After a time, and in what had become their typical unselfish fashion, they decided to start a mission home in Pembroke Pines where they would come alongside missionaries re-entering the country and help shoulder their burdens. Whatever your hands find to do, she would say, do with all your might.

In the decades following their time in Brazil, Joy would come to cherish seasons of abundance. She would help grow her husband’s thriving construction business, see souls won to Jesus at CB Smith Park through Good News Bible Church, and see her husband build them the perfect house out in the country. She would see children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren come to know and love Jesus, and would help raise a missionary, teachers of God’s Word and leaders in worship, skilled craftsmen, business leaders, scholars, and artists who would also become incredibly loving moms, dads, and grandparents.

Joy lived through many hardships as well. Missionary life was tough, as was raising five children. The family business didn’t last forever, and money was sometimes scarce, but no matter the trial Joy knew God was weaving together both the blessings and the difficulties of her circumstances for her good. She could see the Master’s tapestry taking more and more shape every morning in her studies from the Bible and in her notes from her prayer journal. It seems fitting to now point out that Joy was a master in the craft of crocheting. Her rite of passage from mom to grandma would be her decision to crochet a blanket for her first grandbaby. In fact, from 1976 until 2019 Joy would make a total of 26 blankets for her grandchildren and great grandchildren, each with a unique color and pattern of tiny, almost invisible knots.

Jesus never said our lives would be free of tangled knots. Joy and Jerry both knew this on a level greater than most when, in 1989, the life of their son Dale was tragically and unexpectedly cut-short. Joy would tell you that she knew all her children were saved, but it was Dale’s conversion, asking Jesus into his heart when he was a little boy in Brazil that she remembered as clearly as a movie in her head. She would say this memory was God’s gift to her, a promise that she would one day get to be with Dale again. Unbeknownst to Joy, roughly 20 years later she would give her husband something similar to remember. When worshiping at the Little Country Church that used to meet in their home, the band would often play a southern gospel duet called, Far Side Banks Of Jordan. On several of these Sunday occasions, while taking a break from his harmonica, Jerry would sit back and listen to his wife’s beautiful voice as she sang the words: “But if it proves to be his will that I am first to go and somehow I've a feeling it will be, when it comes your time to travel likewise, don't feel lost, for I will be the first one that you’ll see.”

My grandmother, Elsie Joy Blanchette, left a beautiful legacy of life on this earth. The work God began in her is now finally complete. If she were standing here right now and we were to ask her if she had any wise words to leave with us, I think she would tell us to listen and respond to the voice of the one who is calling out to us, to the one who is saying, “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Jesus, she would then tell us, is the one calling out to you, and he is all you need in order to finish the race. For His grace is sufficient to keep you until we meet again in glory, and when you get there I will be the first one that you’ll see.