Joyce K. Miller (King), a resident of Reading for 58 years, died peacefully at her home at the Residence at Pearl Street in Reading on December 9, 2016.

Joyce was born in Cambria, Virginia on August 18, 1922 and spent her childhood in Tennessee and North Carolina which included summers on her grandparents' farm in Virginia. She graduated from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana where she met her husband, Russell Miller, who was in the Army Air Corp. After they were married, they lived in New Jersey and Florida before settling in Massachusetts in 1948 when Russell joined the faculty of Tufts University as a professor of history.

Joyce was an active member of the Reading community, most notably serving as the Director of the Reading Public Library for approximately fifteen years. The library was underutilized and close to losing its state certification when she took over as Director in 1965, but under her leadership it improved to the point where it won the award for best library in the Commonwealth for a community of its size. She tirelessly led several unsuccessful efforts to convince the town to physically expand the library to meet the increasing demands of its many users, and was pleased when the library was relocated to its present location a few years after she stepped down as Director.

During her tenure as Director, she also chaired Reading's Bicentennial Commission and was a long-term Town Meeting member. She later served on the town's Finance Committee and then the Board of Cemetery Trustees. Joyce was also an active member of the First Congregational Church of Reading, teaching Sunday school and later serving as the Church Treasurer for several years.

Joyce is survived by her three children: Russell B. of Amherst, Massachusetts, Stephen P. of Sammamish, Washington, and Susan K. of Reading, and her granddaughters, Avery E. of Brooklyn, New York, and Vera Bruursema of Amherst, Massachusetts.

Services will be private. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Reading Public Library Foundation, Inc., at P.O. Box 96, Reading, MA 01867.