Former Mintlaw Primary School headteacher Joyce MacDonald of Cruden Bay has died aged 87.
Peterhead quine
Joyce MacDonald was born on June 13 1936 at home in Stuartfield, near Peterhead.
The only child of Georgina (Gilmour) and her husband William Anderson, a loom tuner, she attended Stuartfield Primary before moving on to Peterhead Academy.
After completing school, Joyce enrolled at teacher training college in Aberdeen. As a young woman she loved to watch and play tennis, she had a trial for the Scotland netball team – but a prevailing passion would be her love of dancing.
Love ‘at the dancing’
In 1958, dared by her friends, she asked fellow former Peterhead Academy pupil, Bill MacDonald, up to dance at the Station Hotel in Mintlaw.
He was known to be fleet of foot and though they had seen each other at school, that first dance would also turn out to be a first date.
On July 30 1960 they married in Old Deer Parish Church, Peterhead. The newlyweds moved into their first home in Gladstone Road, Peterhead, after a honeymoon in Nairn.
Bill had worked as a printer but by the time they married he was completing National Service with the Scots Guards. Joyce was already working as a teacher in Aberdeen.
In 1961, David, the first of three sons was born. He was followed by Angus in 1966 and Alan in 1968.
Teaching career
Soon after their wedding Joyce found a new role at North School, Peterhead. She and Bill then moved south to live in West London where he had accepted a role in the Air Ministry police.
They returned to the north-east after 18 months. Joyce became a teacher at Clerkhill School in Peterhead before moving on to Mintlaw Primary where she remained for the rest of her career, latterly as headteacher.
“Relatively strict” her pet peeve was her own children accidentally calling her mum at school.
The firm exterior she was known for could be softened once a year though, when Wimbledon was on television. Every day a set was brought into her classroom and lessons revolved around her sporting favourites.
Latter years
Joyce retired aged 57 in 1984. She and Bill remained in Mintlaw until seven years ago when they moved to Cruden Bay.
She was renowned for her competitive nature. This manifested itself in her becoming a lifelong participant in both indoor and outdoor bowling, even becoming Buchan ladies’ champion. In later years she also took up golf, playing at Longside and Cruden Bay. Nothing quite compared to her ruthless Uno tactics, however.
In retirement, Joyce and Bill loved to travel. Trips included holidays to Germany to see son Angus and his family and further afield to Ontario, Canada, to visit lifetime family friends. She acted as treasurer for Cruden Bay Over-50s club and fulfilled her lifetime ambition to go to centre court at Wimbledon to make her 70th birthday.
Selfless and determined
Over her final decade, Joyce encountered multiple health challenges culminating in recent months with a cancer diagnosis.
As a nanny to her four grandchildren and one great-grandson she remained a “real warrior” throughout health setbacks.
Her sons paid tribute to their mother, saying: “A selfless woman, very determined, highly adventurous, rarely wrong… a force of nature who we were privileged to call mum”.
After 63 years of marriage, Joyce died peacefully on July 3 at Fraserburgh Hospital, surrounded by her family.
At a private funeral at Baldarroch Crematorium her favourite rendition of Highland Cathedral, by Andre Rieu, was played.