Joyce Ruth Haberkost

Joyce Ruth Haberkost passed peacefully August 31, 2023.  Joyce was born December 2, 1922 to George and Winnie Goldwood in Cuyahoga Falls OH, and celebrated her 100th birthday last December with her entire family. Joyce leaves her children Richard Haberkost (Gayle Giles), Donald Haberkost (Susan Brown), Deanna Gartman (Jim, deceased), Deborah Mulholand (Neal) and Denise Wagner (Jerry, deceased); nine grandchildren and sixteen great-grandchildren.  In addition to her parents, Joyce was preceded in death by her siblings Laila Goldwood, Norma Roxbury, Lucille Goldwood, Urma Grinder, Dwight Goldwood, and her devoted husband of 67 years Dean Haberkost.

Growing up in Cuyahoga Falls, she met, courted and married Dean.  Joyce and Dean began their family in Akron OH, before moving to Williamstown WV.  After a few years in Williamstown, they relocated to Parma Heights OH where the family lived for 17 years.  Following relatively brief periods in Millington NJ, Orinda CA, and Houston TX, Joyce and Dean spent 33 retirement years in Brevard NC, before returning to northern Ohio.

Joyce is most remembered for her care and support of her family and her many community activities, including being always an active church member, involvement in Scouting and other youth activities while raising her family, leadership in the Meals on Wheels program in her retirement, and grandmothering her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Joyce was a faithful believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the way she lived her life was both a reflection of that faith and an example set for her family and countless others.  Her family and others will remember her as the strong, determined, proud matriarch who she was and, while she will be missed, they rejoice that she is, at long last, in her Heavenly home.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, November 11, 2023 at 2 pm at First United Methodist Church, 245 Portage Trail, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221, followed by a light cookie reception.  Private interment at Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery.

Memorials may be made to Hospice of the Western Reserve (PO Box 72101, Cleveland, OH 44129), Meals on Wheels of Brevard NC (PO Box 485, Brevard, NC 28712) or First United Methodist Church of Cuyahoga Falls (245 Portage Trail, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221).  

Arrangements entrusted to Clifford-Shoemaker Funeral Home, 330-928-2147.