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Magness, Allys Joy

MAGNESS-Allys Joy Magness died Thursday morning in the house she lived in for 57 years after a brief battle with cancer. She was 89 years old. Allys Joy was born in Caldwell, Kansas, on Dec. 1, 1917. She and her younger sister Juanita moved with their parents, Allys Joy and Thomas Jefferson BASFORD, first to Las Vegas and then to California when the girls were very young. Following their parents' divorce, the girls were raised by their mother. Allys Joy attended Chapman College (now Chapman University) where her love of children led her to become a school teacher. Her first job was in the small town of Holtville, teaching the children of migrant farm workers in a one room schoolhouse on the edge of a dusty field. The students, ages five to eighteen, worked with their parents in the fields on sunny days; when it rained they studied with "Miss Joy." While teaching third grade in El Monte, California, Allys Joy was touched by the blind children who were attempting to mainstream into the education system, and so went back to school to get her certificate to teach Braille. For many years, first as a teacher, and then as a volunteer at Lake Marie in South Whittier, Allys Joy worked to serve the blind community. During World War II, Allys Joy married Carl Brownfield. Just three months later, Carl- a combat pilot- was killed in Europe, leaving Allys Joy a young war widow. After the war , Allys Joy met Chester Magness, recently home from his Army service in Europe, whose mother and sisters had relocated from Olathe, Kansas to Whittier during the war. Chester and Allys Joy were married at the First Christian Church of Whittier in June of 1946. In 1950, the couple moved from Long Beach into a brand new tract home on Loch Lomond Dr. in Whittier where they lived for 57 years. Allys Joy passed away in her bed in that home on Thursday morning October 25, 2007. She is survived by her husband of 62 years, Chester, her three children, Mark, Marilyn and Paul, daughter-in-law Linda and son-in-law Steve, her four grandhildren, Jason, Andy, Brian and Molly, one great-grandson Chester Keegan, several nieces, nephews and their families, and dozens of dear friends. A memorial service will be held at the First Christian Church of Whittier on the corner of Greenleaf and Hadley on Tuesday, Oct. 30 at 3:30 pm. Friends and family are invited to the service and a reception in her honor immediately following the service at the family home.
Published in the Whittier Daily News on 10/27/2007.