Audrey Joyce Aller Pickard

Mrs. Audrey Joyce Aller Pickard was born into a family of seven siblings, bringing up the rear in 1943 as the baby of the family. Her mother was Maude Elizabeth Aller (nee Lowry) and her father was Merdith Aller, Sr. As the youngest of seven – Marjorie Adams (Bob), Charlotte Huffman (Merv), Merdith Aller, Jr. (Maralyn), Robert Aller, Marilyn Hogue (Clayton), and Delores Miller (Ken) – she had all her siblings’ attention. 

Known as Joyce to everyone, she grew up and went to school in New Castle, Pennsylvania, getting her first job as a telephone operator for the phone company after high school. Within a few years, she found herself as a divorced mother in the great town of Waverly with a growing family of her own – Scott Bumpus (Tracy) and Brian Bumpus (Sheila). Joyce worked multiple jobs ranging from medical transcription to delivering papers in the wee hours of the morning in order to make ends meet. When the boys were in junior high, she met and married the love of her life, Richard Pickard and gained three more boys – Tim Pickard, Mike Pickard (Kerry), and Phillip Pickard (April). She always said she adored those years of having five boys of high school age crammed in a three-bedroom house as being the most fun. At least until the grandchildren started to arrive with Ross Bumpus (Candice) being first on the scene. More grandchildren arrived in the following years – Braeden Pickard (Brianna), Blake Pickard (Sarah), Brodie Pickard, Taylor Wright (Grant), and Landon Parsons – and the fun just kept multiplying. 

Having grown up in such a big family, Joyce always loved having lots of people in the house to cook for. And cook she did! She had grown up with a whole houseful of top-notch cooks to teach her how to make the most delicious meals and her family and friends benefited greatly. Everyone has their favorite “Joyce recipe” but most agree her cinnamon rolls and Italian Wedding Soup were in the top five.

But more importantly than anything, Joyce knew and loved Jesus, and she passed that on to her children and grandchildren. She was a prayer warrior with a hotline to God. Now she talks to God face-to-face. 

Joyce went home Wednesday, January 15, 2025, at age 81, after a courageous and extended battle with Alzheimer’s. She was met at the gates of heaven by those who went home before her – her parents, her husband Richard, and her son, Scott. Her siblings Marjorie, Charlotte, Merdith, and Bob were also there to greet her and celebrate her homecoming to Jesus. 

Those she left behind celebrate her life and would like to invite those who knew her to join them for visitation from 10:00am until service time at 12:00pm Monday, January 20, 2025, in the Humphreys County Funeral Home Chapel. Bro. Joe Rhodes will be officiating the service. 

Interment will follow in the Doughten-Long-Pickard Cemetery in McEwen. 

 Arrangements by Humphreys County Funeral Home (931) 296-5955