Joyce Marie Freeman died on May 16 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She was 72.

Joyce was born on May 2, 1947, in Bridgeport, Conn. Her parents Gerald and Helen Bouffard soon moved to Sharon, where she grew up. She graduated from Sharon High School and Aquinas College in Milton. She met her future husband while they both worked at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Jamaica Plain.

Joyce and Les moved to Martha’s Vineyard in 1970 while he assumed management of the Island MSPCA. Joyce loved the Vineyard and enjoyed her time working at Lawry’s Seafood restaurant and her role as bookkeeper at various Island businesses and banks. Most of all she loved raising her only child Geoffrey.

She enjoyed adopting, sometimes not by choice, many dogs and cats and various animals Les brought home from the animal shelter. Later in life she enjoyed gardening and spoiling her two granddaughters Kaitlyn and Emily.

She was predeceased by Les in 2006 and her mother Helen in 2018. She is survived by her son Geoffrey and his wife and two granddaughters of Edgartown.

A private graveside service was held on May 25 at the New Westside Cemetery in Edgartown.

Donations can be made to The Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard, P.O. Box 1829, Edgartown MA 02539.