| Joyce Virginia (Combs) Ebbitt |
| Joyce Virginia Combs Ebbitt is Tom's mother. She was born November 21, 1930 to Robert Henry Combs and Corrine Virginia Harris in Highland Springs, Virginia. Her brother and sister are Robert and Doris. After the death of her mother, her father remarried and had seven more children, Louis, Sally, Ronald, Joan, John, Mary, and Shirley. His new wife already had a daughter, Kathleen. Joyce's mother died at the age of 26, before Joyce was four years old. Joyce was raised with 10 brothers and sisters by her father and step-mother in Virginia. Times were very hard for this family. Her father was a carpenter, and his earnings were meager. Memories that Joyce has often shared about her childhood are bittersweet. They are memories of life with only one pair of shoes, one Sunday dress, meals that did not include meat but for Sundays. Memories of days spent entirely outdoors in play with her brothers and sisters, making up their own fun. With her Granny -- her mother's mother (Emma [Miller] Harris) nearby, Joyce and her brother and sister had a "haven" all their own, a special place to go from time to time where they could still be close, in some way, to their mother. This was their retreat. In 1949, at the age of 18, she married Francis Leo Ebbitt, Jr. in Sandston, Virginia. In the next twelve years, they would have four children, Marian, Catherine, Timothy and Tom. Frank's career took him to Japan, Maryland, and finally San Antonio, where he retired. It was also there that in 1979 Joyce and Frank divorced. Joyce (Combs) Ebbitt, now 72, has remained in San Antonio with her four children and their families. |
| Joyce (Combs) Ebbitt |
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