Joyce Lind Gaines

Joyce Lind Gaines, 84, of Asheville, NC, passed away on January 4, 2023, from cancer.

Joyce was born on July 4th to Martin and Elsie Lind in Auburn, NY. She grew up on a dairy farm where she rode her horse, Breezy, and when she got a little older, drove stock cars at the local track – unbeknownst to her parents. She graduated from East High School in Auburn in 1956 and went on to attend Oswego State University also in NY. 

She met the love of her life, Dan Gaines, at a ski club event in Syracuse, NY. Soon thereafter, Dan moved to Myrtle Beach, SC to work for G.E.  After spending six months of paychecks talking together on the phone, Dan proposed, and after a long pause she gulped out “Yes.” They married in Joyce’s hometown of Auburn and began their life together in the “one stop light town” that Myrtle Beach was at that time. A year later, their first daughter, Lisa was born. Then, because G.E. stands for Going Everywhere, Joyce and Dan moved extensively around the country.  Cindy, their second daughter, was born in Albany, NY and soon thereafter, Joyce and Dan built a Lake House (camp) in the Adirondacks, where they and their extended family gathered and had many wonderful experiences together over the years. 

Eventually, the Gaines’ moved to Hendersonville, NC, and Joyce went back to college at UNC Asheville, graduating with Departmental Honors and a Bachelor’s degree in psychology. She worked at Trend Mental Health in Hendersonville, developing a specialty in helping people with multiple personalities, while attending graduate school at Western North Carolina earning a Master’s degree in Counseling. Joyce was an incredibly compassionate listener and always helped others feel better.  

After retirement, Joyce and Dan bought a place on Lake Keowee in SC where Joyce was able to continue her love of gardening with her incredible green thumb. She and Dan were able to travel the world, notably visiting an island north of the Arctic Circle from where her family roots come from. For the last 12 of their 62 years together, Joyce and Dan joined the Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community. Not having a garden plot there, Joyce continued her love of gardening, growing orchids in their kitchen.

Joyce is preceded in death by her parents, Martin and Elsie Lind; her sister Barbara and her husband Leonard Partelow; and her brother Major General Martin E. Lind and his wife Joyce. She is survived by her loving husband Dan, and her two daughters and their husbands: Lisa and Scott Lethi; and Cindy and Al Cannon. She will be forever cherished and missed by her only grandson, Tucker Wilson, her seven nieces and nephews and their families, as well as the Gaines family members who have always considered her their matriarch.      

She will be laid to rest at Cannon-Byrd Memorial Park in Fountain Inn, SC. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in memory of Joyce Gaines: The Asheville Humane Society    https://www.ashevillehumane.org/donate/, to Four Seasons Hospice Care, 211 North Main St., Hendersonville, NC 28792, or to Deerfield Charitable Foundation, 1617 Hendersonville Rd., Asheville, NC 28803.