Joy Franklin Sipple Jr

Written with much help from his oldest daughter, Susan Sipple Fishburn.

Joy Jr (called Junior) was born August 26, 1915 in Ord, Nebraska the middle child of five children born to Joy F and Adda Rockwell Sipple.

The following are the only photos we have of Junior as a child:

Junior with his Mother, Adda

Junior with Opal, Charles and a cousin... above and below...

Opal, Juleen, Rex and Jr...

Oldest brother Charles with Junior in front of the family home on 17th in Grand Island... above.
Below Junior is on the right with younger sister Juleen and youngest brother Rex.



The following photos were taken on visits to "Uncle Joe's" (Joe Kilbinger) farm on the Rosebud Indian Reservation near Valentine, Nebraska.

Junior... Adda... Charles

My Mother, Juleen Sipple Reher, Junior's younger sister said that he always liked dogs and would come dragging some stray home all the time. He was the one who found their favorite dog, Pat, and brought him home. She can still see him sitting out in the rain holding Pat so he wouldn't get wet.

Susan said her Dad always liked to tease dogs. In later years when he came to visit them he would take a rubber band and snap it, making a noise that would scare their dog.


Juleen said that Junior was always in trouble, being the middle child she supposed. One summer their parents sent him out to Uncle Joe's alone for the summer. He had to work picking up buffalo or cow chips for the stove and do other things, like riding this horse. I wonder if the sack behind him was for the cow chips. When summer was over and he came home Junior really thought he was hot stuff, according to Juleen. He would walk around with his thumbs hooked in his belt and a swagger to the walk just like a real cowboy, which he thought he was.

Susan thinks her Dad always wanted to live on a farm. He even once put a down payment on a farm but her Mother said that she could not take care of it when he was overseas working. So he did not get his farm. A few years before he passed away, Junior told Susan, "I am very proud of you, Susan." She thinks it was because she and her husband had moved to Oregon and had a farm.

Grandpa Sipple, Junior's Father, kept journals during the late 1930's and 40's. In the journals he talked about Joy Jr. borrowing 50 cents and then paying it back a few days later. 50 cents back then could buy a lot. He also told how Junior had taken his fishing rod and sold it, but later it was returned. Junior also bought a motorcycle and took his Father for a ride.

Joy as a teenager...

Joy's graduation photo...

Juleen wrote to Susan several years ago and told her a bit about her brother Junior. She said, "He was a very handsome young man & popular with the girls. He was the biggest tease then and all his life! One of his favorite sayings, when he
wanted you to do something for him was "press my pants (or something like that) and I'll use my influence when you get old & get you a room next to the bathroom in the poor house."

Joy as a young man posing on some park bench...

Juleen said that "Junior had a lot of gypsy in him and often would hop a freight train & he be gone for a couple of weeks or more."

After graduation, Joy Jr went west and helped to build the Boulder Dam (later called Hoover Dam)... No one knows much about his job, what exactly he did... In fact Susan had never heard this story before. Above and below are some old postcards depicting the workers and the dam at that time. It was completed in 1937.

Joy Sipple Jr married Margaret Marie Schellmann in 1940 on Valentine's Day in Aurora, NE

Juleen told Susan that "He married your Mother and they lived in an apartment in the basement that our folks fixed up for them. Your Mom was pregnant with you. After you were born they moved to California. You dad worked in the ship yards." He was a welder.

Margaret Marie Schellmann's graduation photo...

For more information on Margaret and her family see Susan's Schellmann Blog.
Margaret was born January 29, 1916 in St Joseph, Missouri. Junior and Margaret had three children: Susan Ann, Joyce Dorcas, and Charles Theodore.

Susan Ann Sipple was born September 24, 1940 in Grand Island, NE

These photos were taken in Grand Island after Susan's birth... Above Susan is shown being held by her Mother and then her Father.
In the two photos below Susan is being held by her Grandmother Adda...

Two years after Susan was born Joyce was born, Susan went to stay with Junior's sister Juleen and her husband Barney in their apartment in Santa Monica while Margaret was in the hospital the required 10 days at that time. The following photos were taken while Susan was there...

Joyce Dorcas Sipple was born March 15, 1942 in Huntington Park, CA


Juleen with Susan and Margaret with Joyce...

Adda passed away in September of 1944 and Juleen told Susan that "He was very devoted to our parents & by far the best to write
letters to them. When our Mom was dying from cancer he came home & stayed a month or so just so he could be with her."

Charles Theodore Sipple was born July 26, 1946 in Long Beach, CA

There are not many photos of Joy Jr and Margaret or the kids, family photos.

Susan says that her Dad was not around much. When she was little they lived in a court with lots of other kids and her Mother and Dad both worked. In the early 1950's they moved to Wilmington, CA which is now called Carson, CA. Her Mom and Dad bought a house across from a park.

According to Grandpa Joy Sipple Sr's journals in the 40's this was Joy & Margaret's address:
1941 4932 Locust Ave, Long Beach, CA (% D. Roach)
1942 353 Magnolia, Long Beach, CA
1942 519 E Seaside #A, Long Beach, CA
1943-1945 620 New York St, Long Beach, CA

Joyce and Susan

Susan at Christmas... note the crooked tree...

Susan said, "My Dad always liked radish sandwiches, which I also like to eat."
Joyce said, "My Dad always read the newspaper and then threw it on the floor all around him..." Susan does this also still to this day.
They remember having to pick up rocks in the yard and their Dad would give them a quarter.
Why they had to pick up rocks is still a mystery to them. Perhaps to keep them out of his hair.

One day Joy Jr wanted to get a new pair of pants. He held up a pair to half of his neck and said "these will fit" and to Susan's surprise they did. Another time he was coming to dinner at her house after she was married. Her husband said, "you'd better put bread on the table" and Susan said, "no, my Dad never eats bread and butter" and the first thing he did was ask for bread.

Susan remembers her Dad liked to go to the beach. He would take the kids and they all enjoyed it a lot. She doesn't know if her Dad liked to look at the girls more or at the ocean.

Susan, Joyce & Charles...

Joy Jr is on the right in the photo below...

The following photos were taken on a fishing trip to Big Bear Lake...

Susan and Charles with the fish they caught... above
Joyce and Susan below...

Susan and Charles riding horses...

Joy Jr with Susan, Joyce & Charles...


Joyce and Susan with their Grandpa Joy Sipple Sr...


The family at Christmas... about 1953...

Susan says that her Dad worked for the Borax Company in Wilmington, CA when they were really small. Then he decided to go off on an overseas job in Saudi Arabia. He was there for two years. It was very hard having growing up with him gone with no car or anything. Her Mother would take them places on the bus or streetcar. When they would go to the grocery store for food they would take the wagon to the store. At Christmas they would take the wagon to get a Christmas tree.

The following photos were taken in Saudi Arabia.




Joy Jr's immigration papers...
(click on them to see them bigger)

When Junior came back from Saudi Arabia he decided to go to Puerto Rico where he later had a very successful business welding on the big ships that came into port.

In the late 1950's Margaret and the children moved to Puerto Rico to be with him. They got to see the beautiful island with beautiful beaches, the rain forest and a fort... but the children didn't like it there and so they moved back to California and lived in the same house they had left.

Eventually Junior and Margaret divorced and in 1962 he married Iris Mercado in San Juan, Puerto Rico. They had two children and named them Joy and Adda after his parents.


Joy Jr on one of the trips back to California holding the first grandchild, Ricky, son of Susan and her husband Gary Fishburn, shown also.


Joy Jr with his Puerto Rico children (Joy on far left and Adda far right) and his grandchildren, Ricky, Penny, Steven, David and Rhonda.

Susan and Joyce with their Father, Joy Jr...

The 5 Sipple siblings about 1975... Jr, Charles and Rex behind Opal and Juleen...

Junior loved to come home and visit his last years, Juleen says. "We'd get a call one morning and it would be Junior saying, 'I'm in Omaha and I'm coming to stay with you.'"

Opal told a story when Susan and Joyce were back to Nebraska to visit in 2006... It seems on one of these visits Junior was staying with Opal and she noticed that his comb which was laying on the bedside table was missing quite a lot of it's teeth. So, she threw it away and bought him a new one that day. Junior was so mad at her for throwing it away. It seems that it had been given to him by Margaret, his first wife, about 25 years earlier and he treasured it.

The siblings in 1980... Rex, Charles and Jr behind Opal and Juleen


Standing in their birth order... Charles, Opal, Jr, Juleen and Rex... 1980...

Juleen said, "The last time Junior was back here for a visit, I took him out to the interstate to catch a commuter bus to Omaha. I'll always picture him looking at me with that devilish (again) smile and saying 'you're pretty good looking for an old lady!' Bless his heart, after all these years he finally said something nice (or almost) (ha)"

Joy Franklin Sipple (first Junior... later Senior or II) died in Ponce, Puerto Rico on December 28, 1997 at the age of 82. Juleen thinks that his son Joy III took care of his Father his last years. He was very sick. He wanted to come home (to Grand Island) to visit one more time and Joy III wanted to bring him but it never happened.

When Joy died, he was survived by his wife Iris, sons Charles and Joy III, daughters Susan, Joyce and Adda, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was also survived by his four siblings, Charles, Opal, Juleen and Rex.

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