Joyce Marie Kilpatrick Choate

Joyce Marie Kilpatrick Choate
March 4, 1933 – May 6, 2023

A Mama is made different. They are all-in-one nurturing, problem solving, disciplinarians who send better people out into the world regardless of blood ties. A Mama lives by values no matter if they are rich or poor.

“Mama Joyce” Marie Kilpatrick Choate joined a host of waiting parents, siblings, relatives, and life-long friends at sunset on May 6, 2023. The hands of her husband, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren held her through her final moments.

Joyce Marie Kilpatrick Choate was born March 4, 1933, at home near Ralls, Texas, to John W. and Addie Kilpatrick. Her family moved to Howard County at age 3. Her parents moved between Luther and Big Spring throughout her adolescence as they operated the J.O. Haney Country Store in the farming community. Joyce Kilpatrick graduated from Big Spring High School with the Class of 1950, where she permanently captured the eye of classmate Carroll Putnam Choate. Joyce and Carroll began their life-long example of demonstrating their marriage vows on June 4, 1950, during a ceremony at the home of Winston and Eris Kilpatrick celebrated by the late Rev. Bishop Alsie Cartlon (United Methodist Church).

In January 1951, Joyce and Carroll left Big Spring to pursue a hardscrabble living in the cotton fields of Martin County. There, Joyce took on the job of Mama where John Melvin “Dusty,” Julie Carol, and Mark Putnam were born. In 1956, when Putt was two weeks old, the family resettled in Sand Springs leaving bunkhouse living and outdoor plumbing behind them. As Carroll did shift work at Cosden Refinery, Mama Joyce became a prairie Renaissance woman as a mother of three, a homemaker, seamstress, washerwoman, gardener, house and fence painter, and office secretary. In those early years, the Choate Family were fixtures at Coahoma United Methodist Church.

Careful family resource management and never-ceasing labor led Joyce and Carroll to found Choate Windmill and Water Well Service in 1957. In 1959, Laura Ann was born – completing Mama Joyce’s household. As her children grew, Mama Joyce was a constant chauffer to piano and dance lessons or football and baseball practices when not presiding over Coahoma PTA meetings. Weekends were dedicated to Sunday School class leadership and Vacation Bible School planning. In 1965, the Choate Family finally reached their forever home: hundreds of acres flanked by Moss Creek Lake and the iconic Signal Mountains range east of Big Spring.

At last, life seemed less hard as Mama Joyce’s children grew older and began setting courses beyond the Lazy C Ranch. Evenings and weekends no longer had to be dedicated to extra shifts or side income. They were instead filled with fun and large social engagements. The Choates transitioned to First United Methodist Church in Big Spring, where they held a variety of leadership roles for decades. Mama Joyce and Carroll were charter members of the Cowboy Barn Dance Gang and the Wednesday Night Dance Club. These good times were set to the live soundtrack of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys and Hoyle Nix – unless a new John Wayne or James Bond movie was opening at The Jet.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Mama Joyce broadened her role to a steady stream of grandchildren. During these years she refined her painting skills to the finer side of the art. She specialized in Western scenes and mastered the colors of dusk. When not at her easel, she and Carroll traveled far beyond their humble beginnings around the United States and across the world. The rural shopkeeper’s daughter from Ralls was able to touch an Alaskan glacier and the Western Wall in Old Jerusalem.

Mama Joyce’s final years were filled with an explosion of new in-laws and great-grandchildren. She and Carroll stopped celebrating wedding anniversaries to instead host large dance parties marking each decade of matrimony. June 2023 would have marked 73 years together.

Mama Joyce is preceded in death by her mother and father; four sisters Dealva Patton, Doris Yates, Nell Dent, Evelyn Hall Burchett; and her brother and beloved sister-in-law, Winston and Eris Kilpatrick, who helped raise Joyce as a child. Her beloved husband of 72 years Carroll Choate survives her, along with children: John M. “Dusty” Choate (Patty), Julie Carol Choate Johnson (Maro), Mark “Putt” Choate (Fifi), Laura Ann Choate Churchwell (Tommy). All 17 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren know Mama Joyce’s love.

Visitation hours are 5:00pm to 7:00pm at Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home on Tuesday, May 9. The funeral service begins at 10:00am at First Methodist Church of Big Spring celebrated by The Very Rev. Katie Churchwell and Pastor Ricky Carstensen on May 10. Private burial service to follow. Pallbearers are her grand- and great-grandsons.

In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to the Methodist Children’s Home (mch.org) and the Heritage Museum of Big Spring (bigspringtxhistorymuseum.com).

Arrangements are under the direction of Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home and Crematory. Online condolences may be made at www.npwelch.com

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