Tyndall, SD – Sweet small town girl dreams big, moves to Los Angeles and makes it big, while always remaining the sweet small town girl until the end – September 10, 2016 (Arcadia, CA).   Humble, thoughtful, generous, loving, loyal, kind, gentle – these are just a few of the words that begin to describe Joyce Jane Cammilleri.

Joyce was born to Anna and Erwin Grimme in Tyndall, South Dakota, on July 29, 1933, where she grew up the youngest of seven children (Ernest, Howard, Harold, Laverne, Evelyn, Leo, and Joyce).   A self-described tomboy, she remembers loving to climb trees as a girl.   She graduated from Bon Homme High School in 1951.   Then, she began to teach grades 1st through 8th in a single room country school house.   While teaching, she gradually worked towards her teaching credential from Southern State Teachers College in Springfield, SD, which she earned in 1963.

While very happy in South Dakota, the weather and stories of southern California beckoned.    So in 1958, she and a couple girlfriends headed out to the Los Angeles area to continue teaching there and build a different sort of life than the one they might have had if they remained in the Midwest.   One night while dancing at an Arthur Murray dance studio, Joyce met Stefano Cammilleri who was a part time dance instructor there.   They married on May 1, 1965 and had three children, Gaius (“Guy”), Marcus, and Leo.

At the birth of her first child, she decided to stop teaching and stay home to raise her children.    Around the same time, in early signs of her future as a savvy entrepreneur, investor, and business leader, she used her savings to help establish a chain of barber shops, and then eventually the world famous salon hair care company, JOICO Laboratories in 1974.    In 2001, she sold JOICO and became a full time investor and philanthropist.   As an investor, she was most proud of her purchase and stewardship of World Gym International in 2009, a chain of over 220 gyms in almost 20 countries.    As a philanthropist, she contributed to many great causes specializing in medical research, care for children with disabilities, and care for economically disadvantaged children, including USC’s pioneering Brain and Creativity Institute.

While the above overview provides an outline of her life, it misses many of the little things that we adored about her.    Afternoon coffee breaks on the back patio with an apple fritter or bear claw.   A glass (or two) of Red Rose – or more recently, Pinot Noir - each evening.   Vanilla ice cream with chocolate and peanuts on top.   Decades of dogs, cats, chickens, pigeons, and fish – some obtained purposefully, but many more just strays she tended to adopt - Fluffy, Simmer, Big Foot, Caesar, and many more.   The North Woods Inn (especially the cheese bread and the red cabbage salad).   The Only Place in Town.    The Derby.  Breakfast at Chef’s Café (but only if Tina served us).  Summers in South Dakota.   The Tyndall Bakery.   Big Bear Lake.   The British Royals, but especially Princess Diana.    The Kennedy’s but especially Jackie.   Her big crushes were Robert Redford, and more recently George Clooney.     Game of Thrones, Ally McBeal, Steve Harvey, and Ellen DeGeneres.   Joyce loved all things botanical including trees, succulents and flowers.  And she loved giving and getting great big hugs.   

On September 19th 2016, we held a private viewing at Cabot & Sons Funeral Home in Pasadena, and committal service and burial in Sierra Madre Pioneer Cemetery in Sierra Madre, CA.   

On October 15th 2016, we will host a big memorial party in Joyce’s honor at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena.   Details to follow in the coming days.

In lieu of flowers, we ask that you consider donations to the Joyce J. Cammilleri Family Fund at the California Community Foundation so that we can continue donating to the great causes in which Joyce was involved during her lifetime.   For more detail on the causes that Joyce’s Fund engages in, please visit: http://calfund.org/joycejanecammillerifund/

Please share with us your memories, stories, and photos of Joyce at her Memorial Website: http://www.forevermissed.com/joyce-jane-cammilleri/