Joye Lucas

Joye Ann Mott Lucas, 96, was born on Oct. 23, 1929, the day the U.S. stock market crashed, in Spokane, Washington to parents Mary and Galen Mott, and passed away at home in Moses Lake, Washington on Dec. 19, 2025.

Many residents of Moses Lake will remember her as a joyful and friendly neighbor or elementary school teacher; she was very active in the community serving at Kiwanis and the Audubon Society. In addition to that, she helped establish the local Moses Lake Bahá’í community.

Joye was known for her friendly and happy spirit, always striving to create unity amidst everyone in every venue. After completing high school at Veradale High School in the Spokane Valley, she attended Whitman College in Walla Walla where she met her husband Bradford Lucas, a man from back east. They were married in 1951, moved to Seattle for a couple of years, then to Bellingham where they had their first three children and worked as schoolteachers. In 1959 they moved across the country to live near Brad’s parents in Ipswich, Massachusetts where another two children were born.

Joye and Brad loved to travel to see and learn about new places; each summer off during the school years they went somewhere. In 1962, 1967 and 1969, they drove across the country and back camping in a tent with three and then five kids to visit Joye’s family in Spokane, taking a different route each time. Joye also took a great trip in 1970 to Europe to visit distant family in Austria and friends in Norway and Belgium, and most importantly to Haifa and Akka, Israel making her pilgrimage to the Bahá’í holy shrines.

With this urge to travel and serve the Bahá’í Faith, an independent world religion unifying mankind, they chose to pioneer to Nicaragua, in Central America. With contracts set to work as teachers at the American Nicaraguan school in Managua, they packed up and moved from Ipswich and drove to Nicaragua in the summer of 1971 – this experience would change their lives forever.

While in Nicaragua, Joye and her family experienced an earthquake which flattened the capital city of Managua. Her entire family had to evacuate and return to Massachusetts. But, within a couple weeks, the school decided to reopen, and they quickly returned. Joye said her years spent living in Nicaragua were the most fruitful of her life. She enjoyed learning and interacting within a new culture, and her children have always said how much they appreciated the experience. Joye continued to teach fifth grade and then, having gotten a master’s degree in administration, became the elementary school principal. In the last two years there, the country was living under curfews and martial law due to mounting political turmoil. In July of 1979, the Sandinista Revolution toppled the existing government, and Joye and Brad returned to the U.S. Shortly after they returned, however, Joye was asked to return to serve as interim director of the American Nicaraguan School because the newly-hired director had arrived and left the very next day due to a death threat. Joye returned for six months and then came back to Moses Lake and served as a bilingual fifth-grade teacher at Lakeview Elementary School, teaching there until she retired in 1993.

After retirement, Joye and her husband Brad continued to travel whenever possible, including numerous visits to Nicaragua and Panama. Of everlasting interest to Joye, she and Brad then chose to live in China for a year. Given the opportunity to serve as English school teachers at a university in Wuhan, China, they lived there from late 1993 to the end of 1994.

During the following years, Joye served the Bahá’í community of Eastern Washington at summer schools and community events, and as an administrator. This, while always assisting her children, grandchildren, and their children, in every manner possible as a loved and appreciated parent. Joye was loved as an incredible spouse, mother, daughter, sister, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend.

From 2010 on, she attentively took care of Brad who experienced memory loss until his passing in 2019. Joye lived her life as a model to all in that she spent each day striving to learn something, always focusing on improving her own character. Her life was devoted to teaching the Bahá’í Faith, whether through one’s own or community events, but primarily through example. She was of amazing character and strength while always humble.

A memorial is being held this Saturday, April 25 at 2 p.m. at the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center at 900 Yonezawa Blvd, here in Moses Lake. All are welcome to attend.