Joyce Whiteley Logan

Joyce Whiteley Martin Logan, 89, passed away peacefully surrounded by her children on July 19, 2024, in her Woodland Heights apartment in Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Joyce was born July 9, 1935, in Chicago to John Albert Martin, a Montgomery Ward department stores executive, and Eva Marie Niedermayer. She spent her childhood living in the Chicago suburb Evanston, and often recalled attending Chicago Cubs baseball games with her mother, who was quite the heckler according to Joyce’s telling. 

After her parents divorced, Joyce attended Tudor Hall all-girls boarding school in Indianapolis through her sophomore year. She then returned to the Chicago area to live with her father and stepmother Richenda “Betty” Frye, a businesswoman and former women’s magazine editor, and graduated from Niles Township High School. Joyce always credited Betty with nurturing her into adulthood and viewed her as her “spiritual mother.” Betty was from Colorado, and Joyce spent summers through high school and college living with Betty’s family in Denver or working at various resort locations in the mountains. 

Joyce attended the University of Colorado Boulder for two years where, as she put it, she majored in “skiing.” At her father’s urging and “to recover her grades,” Joyce transferred to Lindenwood College for Women in St. Charles, Missouri, where she graduated in 1957 with a degree in psychology and a minor in French. 

After college, Joyce became a flight attendant for Pan Am, spending just under a decade flying routes around the world during the “golden era” of air travel. She had countless stories from this period in her life, including some about her famous passengers such as actress Elizabeth Taylor and former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. She was primarily based out of New York City, where a mutual family friend introduced her to her future husband, Dr. Charles Wilbur Logan, then a surgery resident at Cornell Medical Center. Thus began a remarkable five-decades-plus union. 

Charles and Joyce married in 1964, and after briefly living in Houston and South Carolina, they established their roots in Little Rock, raising three children and weaving themselves into the fabric of the city professionally and civically. Their numerous shared interests enriched their marriage, among them family and international travel (including visits to every continent at least once), baseball (including Arkansas Travelers season tickets and annual sojourns to spring training), and horse racing (including being an Oaklawn Jockey Club mainstay and yearly trips to Saratoga Race Course). They were also enthusiastic social entertainers, with the annual duck dinner parties they hosted for two decades still remembered fondly among friends. Charles and Joyce also regularly attended Pulaski Heights Methodist and St. James Methodist churches. 

Joyce’s many personal interests included reading, tennis, and backyard birdwatching. Other than her family, few things gave Joyce more enjoyment than working a jigsaw puzzle, an enthusiasm she passed down to her children and grandchildren. Joyce believed in serving her community, and as such volunteered at entities such as Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Arkansas Cancer Research Center, and Central High School Library. She was also active in the Pulaski County Medical Society Auxiliary, including a term as the group’s president. In addition, she served as a poll worker for state and federal elections for almost 30 years, including roles as a precinct judge and chief judge. 

She is survived by her children, Charles Russell Logan, Christopher Lee Logan (Sara), and Karen Michelle Budrakey (Erik); three grandchildren, Connor Scott Logan, Vladimir Jon Budrakey, and Nadia Logan Budrakey; brother Bruce Arthur Martin (Marcia); and cousin Anne McClellan McKown. 

Joyce is remembered as a loving and devoted wife, mother, grandmother and friend, noted for her kind and generous spirit. In her final decade and half she battled a pernicious disease, which those around her remarked she faced with grace, courage, strength and resilience. She never lost her lifelong sense of curiosity about the world, and retained the twinkle in her eye, particularly when family members visited. Her favorite exclamation was “Wonderful!” She maintained her sense of humor to the end, keeping those around her laughing with a quip, look or gesture. She will be dearly missed. 

Joyce will be laid to rest August 16, 2024, at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Nashville, Tennessee, in a family graveside service. Toward the end of her life Joyce found much fascination in visiting Little Rock’s parks along the river and watching dogs frolic, children play and birds fly. As such, the family requests that in lieu of flowers donations be made to organizations related to those interests: Humane Society of Pulaski County, Arkansas Children’s Hospital or Arkansas Audubon Society. 

The family would like to thank caregivers Robin Cartwright and Angela Aleman, who were with Joyce for the better part of nine years, as well as Belva Hughes and a host of others provided by Elder Independence Home Care. 

Arrangements made by Smith Family Funeral Homes, and Joyce’s guestbook may be signed at www.smithfamilycares.com.