CURRENT ADDRESS:
Joyce (Ramsey) Westfall
Bill Westfall
6 Quail Ln
Alexander AR 72002-1633
501.455.5264
Brief autobiography:
Jim, thanks for all the questions to help with the autobiography. I hated to start trying to sum up
50 years of life especially when I feel my life has been somewhat ordinary without any
outstanding accomlishments other than rearing two fine children. Using your questions as a
quide, I will give it a shot.
After high school I attended Arkansas A & M College at Monticello and had the time of my life,
right Nancy? I then married my high school boyfriend from Elaine, Robert Williamson, and we
moved to Little Rock. I began working in the Claims Department for Southern Farm Bureau
Insurance Company and was there for several years. Robert and I had a son, Russell and a
daughter, Karen. Russell lives about 25 miles from me, works for ABC Finance in Little Rock
and has two daughters, both at Ouachita Baptist University. One is a Freshman and the other will
graduate in May. Karen and her family also live about 20 miles from us in Benton. She is a
supervisor at the Arkansas Highway Dept. and has a son 15 and a daughter who will graduate
from High School this year.
After our children got a little older, I went back to work. This time for National Investors Fire
and Casualty Insurance in the Claims. During the 15 years I was with National Investors, I held
several positions, the last being a Claims Adjuster. When the Company was sold, I went to
Union Standard Insurance and was there for 7 years. The last part of my career was serving as
Claims Manager.
In 1986 at the age of 47 I find myself not only with an empty nest, but I had become a widow .
Needless to say, I had lots of changes to make in my life, but God was good to me and gave me
the courage to go forward with my life. Three years later, I married Bill Westfall. Bill had been a
good friend of ours for years. He had lost his wife to cancer at an early age and they had two
grown daughters, DeAnn and Nicki. Both of his children and their families live in Little Rock so
we are very lucky. Together we have 9 grandchildren, most of them being born after Bill and I
married 15 years ago.
I retired shortly after Bill and I married and then he took early retirement at age 59. He had been
the Director of Linen Services for the Baptist Hospital System here in Little Rock for 20
years.They serviced the 5 hospitals in the Baptist System here in central Arkansas. Since we had
both lost a spouse, we realized the importance of spending quality time together before we got to
old to enjoy the things we wanted to do. We love to travel and have been to Europe several
times. After seeing the countries in Europe we wanted to see, we returned home and bought a
motor home to travel in and see the USA and Canada. Two years ago, we completed our plan of
seeing every state. All of the different places had their beauty, but I am always glad to get back
to our home in Arkansas.
If is very confusing to some people when I say I live in Little Rock, but have an Alexander
address. The facts are, we are in the Little Rock city limits, and in Pulaski County. Alexander
Post Office is the closest to us, but is in Saline County. Seems odd, but that's the way it works.
We are active members of Geyer Springs Baptist Church which is about a mile from our home.
The small subdivision where we live has only about 27 houses so everyone seems to know each
other very well. Out of the 27 families, about 8 families are also members of our church. We
truly do have a neighborhood of friends and neighbors. Bill and I are both very blessed with good
health. We try to stay active and I think that keeps us feeling good.
Hobbies?? Yes, I have a few. In my younger days I sang with the Sweet Adelines for over l5
years, doing concerts and shows in and out of the state. I used to like to oil paint until I ran out of
places to hang the pictures and people to give them to, so I have not done much painting in the
last year or so. I am into scrapbooking now and have over 200 books and am still working on
them. I have always loved taking pictures and making books so my scrapbooks dating back to
about 1950 probably have a lot of pictures and history of a lot of you classmates. In looking back
at my 2nd grade school picture, I see a lot of you classmates that went through 12 years together.
My,how times flies. I do not have any family left at West Helena. I lost my dad in 78 and Mom
passed away this past July. She had been living in West Memphis for the last few years. Some of
you may remember my only brother, Dwayne. He and his family live in West Memphis.
I know this is getting a little long, but you asked the questions, now I don't want to stop. You
have started me reminiscening and it is fun to look back at what used to be.I did attend Beach
Crest, Woodruff and Central. We had a little group of about 6 or 7 that used to spend a lot of
time together. I am sorry to say that I do not keep in touch as much as I would like. I
communicate with Sylvia pretty often and we had a great time a few years back when Bill and I
went to Europe with her and Bob. We do not do a lot of traveling now, we are members of an RV
Club and once a month we have a campout at one of the parks in Arkansas. We also volunteer for
two weeks each year at Lake Catherine State Park near Hot Springs. We serve as Park Hosts for
the two weeks which means we are there to help the campers any way we can, answer their
questions about Hot Springs, etc., They provide us with a golf cart and we check to see which
sites are open several times a day and let the office know which are available for them to rent out.
We meet a lot of nice people and really enjoy it. I am happy to say that Susie (McClure) and Joe
Deaton come each year while we are hosting and we really enjoy seeing each other.
One more thing and I will stop. YES, we are Razorback fans.
Below is a recently
made family portrait
Front row:L to R: Emily, Elizabeth, Kristin, Erica,Brittany and Kelli
(our 6 granddaughters)
Sec. row: DeAnn,(Bill dau), Laurie,(dau in law),Nicki,(Bill dau), and
Karen(my dau) Bill & I.
Back row:Justin(grandson)Larry(son in law), Russell,(son),David,(son in
law), Bob,(son in law)and grandsons, Vance and Colton.
Below are two photos of my grandaughter, Erica, at her wedding.
Just showing off my pride and joy.
