Joyce Dean Stout Garrison

Published 1:18 pm Thursday, July 10, 2025

Joyce Dean Stout Garrison, 93, passed peacefully into heaven at her home in Johnson City, Tennessee, on May 30, 2025, after a long illness. Born April 9, 1932, in “Old” Butler, Tennessee, to Gladys Morley Stout and Kyle Stout, she lived a long and fruitful life that touched thousands with her gifts and passion for teaching, music, hosting, serving and her love for the Lord, all of which began in her earliest years.

A piano prodigy, she was playing for church, weddings and funerals at age 7. After TVA flooded her hometown of Old Butler to create the Watauga Lake and dam, she grew up in Elizabethton, attending Elizabethton High School, where she was the class president and received the outstanding student award. While earning her Bachelor of Science in Music Education from East Tennessee State Teachers College (now ETSU), she led the choir and music at her home church, Oak Street Baptist in Elizabethton, where she later married the love of her life, Clyde Garrison.

Her lifelong dreams were to be a wife, mother and music teacher. Joyce Dean and Clyde began their life following his career and moving over the years with their two daughters, Deborah and Teresa, to Charlotte and Lenoir, N.C.; Marietta, Ga.; Columbia, S.C.; and back to Charlotte before retiring in Johnson City.

While in Columbia, Joyce Dean earned a Master of Arts in Teaching/English from the University of South Carolina.

Throughout her life, she taught music to students of all ages, from kindergarten to those in their 80s. During the COVID pandemic period of isolation, she even found a way to teach piano lessons over the phone.

Joyce Dean began her music education career at Unaka High School, where she organized the school’s first band. With every family move, she won the hearts of her students who looked to her as a mentor, a friend and a counselor, as well as their band, choral, piano or public school music teacher. She was named Teacher of the Year more than once. Her choruses were highly lauded and won numerous awards at state choral contests. Many of her students went on to become professional musicians themselves or to win scholarships that allowed them to attend college.

Upon retirement to Johnson City, she and Clyde joined Central Baptist Church, where she directed the bell choir and organized the church orchestra composed of youth and adult church members, which is still going strong after more than 20 years.

Joyce Dean was an active member of the Johnson City Symphony Guild, where she created and led a local “instrumental petting zoo,” a program introducing fourth-grade students to musical instruments. The petting zoo program traveled to schools in the area and allowed students to hear and touch the instruments in hopes they would want to learn to play.

She was invited to serve as pianist at Jonesborough United Methodist Church for several years, where she also taught a sight-singing class, using a text she authored.

Joyce Dean served on the board of the Watauga Academy Alumni Association (WAAA), dedicated to the preservation of the history of Old Butler. For years, she and her husband traveled to Butler to volunteer as docents at the Museum of Butler, Tenn., and worked to provide college scholarships to descendants of Old Butler residents through WAAA. She wrote numerous stories and gave many interviews, even to national magazines, detailing the life and stories of the “town that wouldn’t drown.”

She also was a dedicated member of the Johnson City Monday Club, a service organization responsible for founding the Johnson City Library, where she served on the music and art committees.

Despite her prolific work as a teacher and community volunteer, she was an accomplished home décor seamstress whose joy was decorating and creating a home that has welcomed friends and family for many parties, meals and overnight stays. She and Clyde hosted guests as varied as a church youth group from Alabama, Appalachian Trail hikers, missionaries, National Storytelling Festival attendees, internationally known storytellers, and friends and family from all corners of the world. Her home-cooked Southern meals, especially her banana pudding and lemon meringue pie, along with impromptu piano concerts, were a hit with all. If she wasn’t hosting in her home, she was traveling to her two daughters’ homes as a support system to make draperies or help with grandchildren and, of course, to teach music lessons to grandchildren.

Even when health problems and blindness curbed her volunteer work and hosting abilities, she continued her Christian ministry any way she could. As a prayer warrior, a well-worn list of people to pray for stayed by her bed, and she made phone calls often to check on those she loved. It was her desire to enter heaven from the home she built and loved with her loving husband, Clyde, who served as her caregiver during her last years.

Those mourning her loss but rejoicing that she is with the Jesus she served all her life are her husband of almost 70 years, Clyde Mack Garrison; her daughters, Deborah Lowery of Johnson City and Teresa (Stan) Sands of West Columbia, S.C.; grandchildren, Amy (Nick) Sands Harrison of Kingsport, Caroline (Jarred) Lowery Light of Federal Way, Wash., Julie Sands (fiancé Nick Moran) of Kingsport, and SSGT Benjamin Lowery (Rhiannon), currently serving with the U.S. Army in Germany. Great-grandchildren Charlotte and James Harrison of Kingsport were the light of her life. She also adored her many nieces, nephews, cousins and other family members and friends.

The family wishes to express special appreciation to friend and caregiver Anita Fitzpatrick and the many other caregivers who helped her with comfort throughout her long illness.

A private family burial was held at the Mountain Home VA Cemetery with the Rev. Tony Martin officiating, and violinist Jared Hale honoring her by playing her favorite song, “Jesus Loves Me.” A celebration of life and musical tribute will be held at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in her name to the Museum of Butler, TN, P.O. Box 261, Butler, TN 37640 (museumofbutlertn.org), or to Central Baptist Church Music Ministry, 300 North Roan St., Johnson City, TN 37601.

Take a tour of the Museum of Butler, TN, with Joyce Dean on the museum’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/museumofbutlertn/

Memories and condolences may be shared with the family via www.morrisbaker.com.

Morris-Baker Funeral Home, 2001 E. Oakland Ave., Johnson City, is honored to serve Joyce Dean’s family. (423) 282-1521