Joy French, age 78, of Brookings, died Tuesday, August 16, 2016, at The Neighborhoods at Brookview. Funeral services will be 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, August 23, 2016, at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church in Brookings. Visitations will be from 6-8 p.m. Monday at Eidsness Funeral Home in Brookings. Interment will take place at Black Hills National Cemetery.

Joy Eva (Dreyer) was born March 5, 1938, to John and Opal (Staley) Dreyer. Because of her great love for helping people she graduated from Sioux Valley Nursing School and then worked at the Brookings Hospital. She worked at the United Retirement Center for over 20 years. She married Ross French on April 9, 1960, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He died February 27, 2014.

Joy loved going for long rides in the car with Ross. She spent her last years helping people adjust to living in the nursing home.

Survivors include her four children: Sandy Janis of Canton, South Dakota, Diana French (Dwight Feenstra) of Stickney, South Dakota, Dewayne French (Leona Squires) of Brookings, and Brian French of New Ulm, Minnesota; six grandchildren: Danielle and Jessica Walker, Katlyn and Brianna Pederson, Jackson Hornby, and Aiden French; two special nieces: Amy (Travis) Brown and Angie (Jeremy) DeCurtain; and two siblings: Judy (Denny) Sission of Harrisburg, South Dakota, and Richard Dreyer of Pine Top, Arizona.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, and several aunts and uncles.