Carol B. Joynes

Carol was born on September 10, 1933 in Riverhead to Fletcher and Elizabeth (Lizzie) Booker who came to Riverhead as part of the “Great Migration” of Blacks from southern to northern states. Her parents purchased farmland and established the town’s first middle-class African-American community by opening it to other migrants. Ms. Joynes was the youngest of eight children and grew up at the family homestead, which became a Riverhead Town landmark in 2008.

She served in the Riverhead School District as a school nurse-teacher and retired in 1995 to begin her second career where she worked in many community organizations, including, East End Retired Teachers Association, Order of the Eastern Star, National Council of Negro Women, Woman’s Club of Riverhead, Eastville Historical Society, and the League of Women Voters.

Ms. Joynes preserved the Booker Family historical roots. The Booker family story was told in an exhibit, “Fletcher and Lizzie Booker: Pioneers in the Great Migration” that ran from July through October 2009 at the Hallockville Museum Farm in Riverhead. Ms. Joynes participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony for the exhibit’s opening.

Ms. Joynes was predeceased by her husband, Samuel Bright, her parents, sisters and brothers: Edith Brown, Harriet Johnson, Ruthie Winn, James “Ed” Booker, Vivian Leonard, and Raymond Booker.