First Lady Joycelyn Bernice Taylor

The Life Of Joycelyn Bernice Taylor 

         Joycelyn Bernice Lunan, the 4th of 12 children was born at Salisbury Plain, St Andrew, Jamaica, on March 31, 1935, to the late Adrian Léopold Lunan, farmer and Violet Blanche Hamilton-Lunan.  

        She was educated at the Essex Hall All-Age School, after which she became a seamstress, developed her own patterns of clothing and fashioned them with decorative embroidery works.  At an early age while still in her upper teens, Joycelyn became an entrepreneur, self-employed, and worked from the comfort of her parents’ home, fulfilling the fashion needs of the women and girls of her community. It was also during those early years that she was converted, became a Christian, was baptized in water and became a member of the Church of God of Prophecy in Parks Road, St Andrew.  She attended the Bible Training Institute.  In the 1980s she did courses in Commercial Banking at the Essex Community College in Newark, New Jersey and obtained certification as a Bank Clerk. 

      Joycelyn developed an interest in travelling and at the age of 25 years she migrated to Bristol, England with the help of her late aunt Miriam Hamilton-Mckoy who was living there at the time. Her first job in Bristol was at the local Children’s Hospital where she worked for 6 years. 

      In 1961, she met Stanley Taylor whose aspiration was to become a Pentecostal Minister. They got engaged, was united in Holy Matrimony in 1962, and she became a member of the Apostolic Church. From this union Stanley and Joycelyn Taylor were blessed with three children; Geraldine Elethia, Vaughn Iver and Elaine Annetta. Their first child Geraldine, a daughter, was born in Bristol, England in 1966.  Shortly thereafter, they migrated to Toronto, Canada, where Joycelyn gave birth to a son, Vaughn in 1969 and a daughter, Elaine in 1971.   

     Toward the end of 1971, the family migrated to the United States and lived in the city of Newark, New Jersey for many years. Her husband, Bishop Stanley Taylor founded the Mount Zion Apostolic Church at 116 Clinton Place, Newark, New Jersey. As the wife of the pastor, she also was installed and known as the First Lady. She was ordained a Missionary and she ministered to the local congregation as well as others in the community that she interacted with.  After 33 years of marriage Stanley Taylor then divorced her. Since that time, Joycelyn remained single and continued to serve the Lord gladly. She dedicated her life to the service of her children, the larger family and the church. She became a member of the Gospel Light Apostolic Church in Newark, New Jersey, where she continued to work for the Lord.  She loved to sing and repeat recitations.  One of her favorite recitations was; “You call yourself a Christian and love the gospel plan. Then why not speak for Jesus and speak out like a man?  Do you forget His anguish or did He die in vain? Well, stand up and speak for Jesus, and speak out like a man!” 

      During the earlier years of her marriage to Stanley, she was a stay-at-home mom who dedicated her life and energy to caring for her husband and children. She started working outside the home after her eldest daughter started high school. She sought employment and worked successfully. Joycelyn was first employed by the Chrill Home Care Agency in Orange, New Jersey. After leaving that job she worked as a Nurses Aide at the Irvington General Hospital in Irvington, New Jersey and then at the Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, New Jersey as a Patient Care Technician until her retirement in 2000. 

      Joycelyn, a mother and grandmother, a sister and a friend, was a very caring family person who was kind, loving, jovial, full of laughter and sometimes very funny. She always carried that huge pocketbook clinging to her shoulder wherever she went. Yet, nobody was able to uncover the secret of its contents because it was always being guarded at all times. 

       More than anything else, Joycelyn was a very humble, sincere and a God-fearing soul, who loved the Lord with all her heart. On Wednesday November 18, 2020 at approximately 10:41 am, when all the toils of this present life, the pain, the tears and sorrows ceased, she obeyed that final call  “Come home! Come home! It’s supper time! You are going home at last!”  She left quietly, she left peacefully, and she was gone! “Blessed Are The Dead That Die In The Lord; For They Rest From Their Labors And Their Works Do Follow Them!” 

  Joycelyn has joined her other previously deceased relatives.  Her parents: Adrian and Violet.  6 siblings:  Alexander, Viris, Loretta, Albert, Alwin, Orville and her late and former husband, Stanley.   

       She leaves a legacy of love, honor, integrity and steadfastness to:    3 children; Her first daughter, Dean (Geraldine) Elethia Taylor-Reid, a son Vaughn Iver Taylor and her younger daughter, Elaine Annetta Taylor, 2 grandchildren; Shareem and Brieana, 3 sisters; Mavis, Iris and Byrel, 2 brothers; Ainsley and Othniel, 8 nieces, 12 nephews, 24 grandnieces, 12 grandnephews, 7 great-grandnieces and many more extended families and friends. May she rest in peace! 

                                   Her Favorite Songs 

Praise God I’m free!  I’ve been set free by the Grace of God. I’m free! No more the path of sin I trod, I’m free!.   The blood that cleanseth my sinful stain, I’m free, praise God, I’m free again! 

       2. Leave it there!, Leave it there; Take your burdens to the Lord                  and leave it there; If you trust and never doubt, He will surely                    bring you out. Take your burdens to the Lord and leave it there.  

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