JOYCE CHAGGARIS

FORT WORTH -- Joyce McCormack Chaggaris, 73, passed away peacefully Tuesday afternoon, April 1, 2008, surrounded by her loving family. Memorial service: 1 p.m. Monday in the chapel at Robertson Mueller Harper. The Rev. Lawrence M. Hammond will officiate. A committal service at 3 p.m. will be held in Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery. Joyce was born Sept. 6, 1934, in Stanton, the daughter of Austin and Geneva McCormack. She was the third of five children and was raised in rural East Texas. The family later moved to Mexia where Joyce attended high school and served as a writer for the school's newspaper and as a cheerleader. A voracious reader, Joyce consumed a countless number of books in her lifetime. She had a penchant for biographies and was especially interested in the lives of world leaders. She followed current events with a passion and loved to engage in conversation about the current political environment. She also had a great appreciation for art and was a regular at area museums. Joyce believed honesty and loyalty were the most important characteristics of an individual and lived her life accordingly. She had a love of life that touched all those around her and loved her family most of all. Joyce was the nucleus of her family, always seeing to the needs of others before her own. Joyce was an advocate for quality of life and death with dignity. The family's heartfelt thanks are extended to the wonderful people at Universal Hospice Care for making the latter possible. They would also like to thank Doctors Henry Xiong, Eduardo Castillo and Greg McKenna for adding compassion to the science of medicine. In addition to her parents, Joyce was preceded in death by her husband of 53 years, Peter Chaggaris, and her younger sister, Loise McCormack. Survivors: Joyce will be dearly missed by her son, George Chaggaris and his wife, Marianne, of Keller; son, John Chaggaris of Fort Worth; granddaughters, the apples of her eye, Leslie Chaggaris, Rachal Chaggaris, Jenny Davis and Jill Watts; sister, Peggy Ford of Plano; brothers, Jim McCormack and his wife, Norma, of Mineola, and Jerry McCormack and his wife, June, of Roswell, N.M.; and many nieces and nephews. Robertson Mueller Harper Funerals & Cremations 1500 Eighth Ave., 817-924-4233 To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of JOYCE CHAGGARIS please visit our Sympathy Store.