Thinking her move up north would be a breath of fresh air, away from all the prejudice and discrimination she faced since her youth and through her young adulthood back home, she unfortunately was dead wrong.
She found a comfortable neighborhood of fellow African-Americans living between East Avenue and the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad tracks, but soon learned the stigmas associated with the so-called East Side.
Some people who lived there had their homes physically picked up and moved decades earlier from the West Side of town into the East Side because of their race, and it didn't stop there. Any blacks who wanted to lease apartments west of Bluff Avenue found none available.
She was glad to see city-like merchants lined up along what was then referred to as Fifth Avenue (present-day La Grange Road), but she quickly learned her "people" were not allowed to cross Fifth Avenue to patronize the dress shops, at least not when white folks were there.
And in an almost Rosa Parks-esque "back of the bus" incident, more discriminatory practice reared its ugly head when blacks were not allowed to sit at the dime store lunch counter.
But not long after that injustice come to light than does Joyce recall a group of young men who exercised their not-yet legalized civil rights and staged a sit-in. Within time, the restriction was lifted.
That's just a microcosm of the African-American experience in La Grange and that faced by Joyce and her husband of 37 years, Gaylon Lightner, a couple of the community's earliest civil rights activists who were behind such accomplishments as the village's open housing ordinance in June of 1972, activism in many NAACP committees, initiatives and events.
At Sunday's 18th Annual Race Unity Rally sponsored by that same group, a yearly celebration acknowledging society's cultural and racial differences, The Lightners were presented with a lifetime achievement Diversity Award by their peers -- before a diverse crowd of neighbors and town leaders.
The award was given out by the Rev. Sherri Robinson, pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church on East Calendar Avenue. A prolonged standing ovation followed.
"This lifetime achievement award is for Joyce and Gaylon's outstanding support of diversity," she said, noting their efforts "in helping to make our community a better place to live."
"They were always a team working with the La Grange Area NAACP," said the Rev. Robinson, who noted Gaylon and Joyce were both former board members and members of committees who attended annual state, regional and national conventions. In present day, they are active members of the CommUNITY Diversity Group.
The daughter of a former 8th Avenue fish market owner, Joyce was a village planning commissioner in the early to mid-1980s, about the same time she coordinated the LaGrange leg of the Hands Across America fundraiser. She was secretary of the Eastside Neighborhood Preservation Area Committee, registrar for the La Grange Share Food Program, member of the Gregory Topps Medical Fund Committee and helped organize the La Grange Sunday Mixed Bowling League in 1960.
Gaylon, who joined Joyce in the league when they started dating around 1967 and still bowls with her religiously every week, has served with the Citizens Council of La Grange that helped usher in the first African-American trustee, served on educational panels and neighborhood preservation groups and, like his bride, was a board member of the CommUNITY Diversity Group, which formed n 1992 following the Rodney King beating and the racial strife that ensued.
He chaired the Eastside preservation panel, was a member of the now-defunct Main Street downtown marketing organization and the La Grange Rotary Club. And he was a member of the most recent Comprehensive Plan for Northeast La Grange Committee.
The couple also are longtime parishioners of the LaGrange/Brookfield Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
Upon receiving the award in front of a roomful of longtime neighbors, friends and supporters, the Lightners gracefully accepted the recognition."I really feel some of you are here because of us being here," said Joyce, her 6-foot-4-1/2-foot husband towering over her and, as always, standing close. "But we still have a long way to go."
As humble as they always are, Gaylon also shared his appreciation for their accolades.
"It wasn't something we went after (or) looked for," he said, "we were about community ... We do what we do we don't anticipate any awards or accolades. We do things because we feel it's necessary."
To that, CommUNITY Diversity Group President Linda Eastman added, "We could never fill their shoes, especially Gaylon's ... we are just the extras."
A portion of the 29-member CEP Youth Leadership "Watch My Feet" perfomance group then entertained the 100-plus crowd with a multi-ethnic diversity skit to "Man in the Mirror," a once-popular tune of the late Michael Jackson, which brought tears to some eyes in the room.
The group comprised of Argo Community, Fenwick, Lyons Township, Nazareth and Riverside-Brookfield high schools performed interpretive dance as a loudspeaker seemed to do the rest about effecting change.
"If you want to make the world a better place, look around yourself and make a change," Jackson sung, the words undeniably resonating with the crowd.
A couple of children seemingly most impressed with the afternoon affair -- which included a unique flower-sharing ceremony and group picture -- were Josie and Jamie, the 7-year-old daughter and 5-and-4-month-old son of Park District of La Grange Commissioner Timothy Kelpsas.
"It was real good," said Josie, a second grader at Ogden School. "I like that we shared flowers."
Jamie, clutching a large bouquet of red and white carnations he collected from everyone he could, said he really liked the dancers.
"But I like the flowers most," he said.
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