Patricia Joyce Martin

Patricia Joyce Martin (nee Kirkpatrick) – September 25, 1939 – November 14, 2025

Patricia Joyce Kirkpatrick was born in Springfield, Ohio, the second child of Lloyd Stewart and Hazel Ruth Kirkpatrick (nee Goff). As a young girl she walked to the nearby Calvary Baptist Church. This played a significant, foundational role in her life. She graduated from Springfield High School in 1957. In high school she enjoyed choir, glee club, Latin club, English club and was chosen as a Relay Queen her senior year. She attended Bob Jones University for one year, but finances were not available for her to complete that education.

Her involvement at Calvary Baptist Church had a profound impact on her life. She certainly learned the gospel there and came to saving faith in Jesus Christ. This faith united her with her Savior who carried and sustained her throughout her life. She continued to be active at Calvary Baptist in many ways that included singing in women’s groups and teaching Sunday School and VBS.

Besides finding her Savior, perhaps the next most significant impact the Church had on her was finding her husband. The Pastor’s wife made a plea to the girls of the church to write to her son, Jerry, when he was serving the Air Force in South Korea. Joyce answered the plea and persistently wrote to Jerry. That relationship that sprouted by pen and paper over thousands of miles, grew and blossomed into a marriage that lasted 65 years - from May 2, 1959 until May 14, 2025 when her beloved Jerry departed this life.

God gave Jerry and Joyce two daughters that they cherished and raised with self-sacrificial love - Natalie (Nan) and Michele (Missy). They taught them to love the Lord and provided for them to eventually take up their callings in elementary education where they impacted so many more lives – multiplying many times over the very love that they were shown from Jerry and Joyce.

When Jerry finished his service in the Air Force, he and Joyce married. Joyce worked at home and served in church. She was an avid gardener, accomplished seamstress and excellent cook. She made many of her daughters’ clothes, draperies for their home and for others, and wedding dresses for both Natalie and Michele. All of her skills she put to use in the service of those around her at home and in the church. When Jerry retired from International Harvester in 1991, they moved to Logan and then to Lancaster, OH in 1992 where they poured into their new community and church. Joyce joined a quilting guild and demonstrated her skill while building friendships and encouraging friends. They liked being in Southeastern Ohio, but the pull of family and friends drew them back to Springfield in 2003 where they served once again at Grace Bible Church as long as their strength and ability allowed.

The foundation for Joyce’s life was her Savior Jesus Christ. He supported and sustained her through all the trials and tribulations of life. In the front of her Bible, she wrote some notes:

“Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,

Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled

Within my heart, that it may be

A quiet chamber kept for Thee.”

• From a Martin Luther hymn

“Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and your casting down is but the making ready for your lifting up. 'When I am weak then am I strong.’”

• Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, 4 November, Morning

“There is no sin in sorrow, rather the sin is in loving sorrow, clinging to the feeling, making it the stuff of your life.”

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil 1:6)

“To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forever more!” (Jude 24, 25)

Joyce was preceded in death by her parents, her older sister, Rena Marlene Conrad (nee Kirkpatrick) and younger brother, Francis Lloyd Kirkpatrick, her precious daughter, Michele Joyce Patterson (Wallace Patterson), and most recently the love of her life Jerry O’Neill Martin.

She is survived by her beloved daughter Natalie Martin Demana (T. Andrew Demana); five grandchildren: Thomas Demana (Rebecca), Benjamin Demana (Sabrina), Nathaniel Demana (Allison), Elizabeth Patterson and Samuel Patterson; eleven great-grandchildren – Cade, Zane, Josephine; Eleanor, Vincent, Dominick; Olive, Winnie, Royal, Moses, and Daphne Demana (plus one more on the way!) along with nieces Lynn Conrad and Lisa Conrad Johnson (Michael).

A special thanks to Day City Hospice aide Alicia; nurses Jodi, Alecia, Madeline, Marcie, Trish and Danielle.

A visitation will be held on Monday, November 24, 2025 from 10:00am to 11:00am at Richards, Raff, and Dunbar Memorial Home, 838 East High Street, Springfield. Funeral services, officiated by Pastor Robert Arendale, will begin at 11:00am. Joyce will be laid to rest next to her husband, Jerry, at Rose Hill Burial Park. To share a memory of Joyce, or leave a special message for her family, please see the online guestbook below.