1942
Linda
2014
Linda McIntosh
January 21, 1942 — January 30, 2014
Aubrey will be hosting an open house pot-luck from 5 to 10 p.m Friday, February 6, 2014 at 211 E 5th St, Morris, MN. Contributions to the Southern Poverty Law Center in memorium for Joy McIntosh would be welcome as an honor to her life work.
Linda Joyce (Joy) McIntosh nee Reed, an eclectic red-head with a Texas drawl, was born in Balch Springs, TX on January 21, 1942 as the eighth of nine children. She died January 30, 2014 in Morris, MN. She slept in a school bus in poverty without plumbing much of her childhood. Her father jammed with every black Jazz player in Dallas in the mid 1900s and she met them. She graduated from Mesquite High School in 1960, and attended the University of Texas at Austin where she received a scholarship as one of the first dozen women to join the UT Longhorn band, playing the flute. She worked passionately to end racial segregation on the UT football team and elsewhere. She was a part of the sit-in at the Tower Theatre in Austin to end racially segregated seating. She is named in the Rosa Parks memorial, and was a long time supporter of Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
She married Morris E Clark Jr and had a daughter Kathleen (K.C.). She obtained a master's of public health (M.P.H) from the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston. She worked as a Director of Cottage Life at the Texas school for the Blind.
Following Morris Clark to Florida, she obtained a second master's degree from Florida State University in Tallahassee where she interned at the Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee.
Returning as a single parent to Houston, she subsequently became a child protective services field worker, trainer, and ultimately a policy specialist at the state office in Austin. She worked in progressively higher levels in child care, eventually supervising a dozen day care centers and became an active member of the National Association of Educators of Young Children (NAEYC).
She returned to Austin, TX, where she bought a house in 1976 as a single mom, an accomplishment of which she was fiercely proud. At the time of her death in Morris, she still owned that house and regarded it as her homestead, and told everyone, especially me, that she was returning there. We were preparing to visit Austin this week at the time of her death.
While with the Longhorn band, she traveled to Washington, D.C., where the band played for Lyndon Johnson's inauguration. She was a founding member of the University of Texas Longhorn Alumni Band and was present in the stadium with a hurt ankle when they had 1, 000 members marching on the field for the band centennial. She attended the very first set at the Kerrville Folk Music Festival, and the very last set under Rod Kennedy's leadership. Both sets, 30 years apart, were played by the late Allen Dameron. Allen also played at her December 29, 1985 wedding to me, Aubrey McIntosh. We went together to Kerrville during the time of transition from friends to couple. In 2002 she played one of her original songs at Kerrville backed by singer songwriter Brian Cutean. She was very active in the Austin women's music scene and the Austin Pro-Life movement prior to 1992. She arranged for the late Tim Henderson, another Austin singer songwriter and a Ph.D. chemist, to play at my dissertation defense party.
In 1992 a domestic violence shooting resulted in Aubrey McIntosh's injury and his daughter Dierdre McIntosh's death. Joy corresponded with then senator Joseph Biden to give input on the Violence Against Women Act, and formed the Dierdre Foundation, a 501(c)3 corporation dedicated to educate judges, district attorneys, and law enforcement officers regarding policy and best practices regarding domestic violence. She wrote a pro-se appeal and won on many points raised in the wrongful death suit McIntosh vs the city and county of Denver filed in the 10th United States District Court in Denver. This appeal, based on equal protection, is considered a significant win in the gay and lesbian community.
Following the shooting, Joy developed post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) and became a recluse, but nonetheless liked people and made a deliberate point to talk to everyone, whether stranger or old friend, in the various small cafes that we frequent. Her memory progressively failed, and she was diagnosed with mild Alzheimer's. Aubrey kept Joy in Morris for her final years, where she was loved and protected by the community.
"Joy took in stray and hurting souls, and blessed and nurtured them" (contributed by J. Turk) I was one of them. I had given up when she offered help, no strings attached. In the years before we married, she offered rooms in her house to unwed mothers.
She is survived by her college roommate Carol Taylor of Tomball who is K.C.'s aunt, her second husband, Aubrey McIntosh of Morris MN & Austin TX, her daughter K.C. of Lexington, KY, a stepdaughter, Doreen, of Seattle, her firstborn daughter Lori whom she was able to meet in adulthood, several grandchildren and a granddaughter also named Aubrey, through Lori, all redheads located at undisclosed locations in central Texas that she was never able to meet, but whose photographs she held as treasures.
She made a point to tell me three times in the emergency room that she would die that night, and I was to go forward and take care of myself. She sounded at peace with that, matter of fact and not frightened. Under any interpretation, she was my better half.
--Aubrey McIntosh, widower
Linda Joyce (Joy) McIntosh nee Reed, an eclectic red-head with a Texas drawl, was born in Balch Springs, TX on January 21, 1942 as the eighth of nine children. She died January 30, 2014 in Morris, MN. She slept in a school bus in poverty without plumbing much of her childhood. Her father jammed with every black Jazz player in Dallas in the mid 1900s and she met them. She graduated from Mesquite High School in 1960, and attended the University of Texas at Austin where she received a scholarship as one of the first dozen women to join the UT Longhorn band, playing the flute. She worked passionately to end racial segregation on the UT football team and elsewhere. She was a part of the sit-in at the Tower Theatre in Austin to end racially segregated seating. She is named in the Rosa Parks memorial, and was a long time supporter of Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
She married Morris E Clark Jr and had a daughter Kathleen (K.C.). She obtained a master's of public health (M.P.H) from the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston. She worked as a Director of Cottage Life at the Texas school for the Blind.
Following Morris Clark to Florida, she obtained a second master's degree from Florida State University in Tallahassee where she interned at the Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee.
Returning as a single parent to Houston, she subsequently became a child protective services field worker, trainer, and ultimately a policy specialist at the state office in Austin. She worked in progressively higher levels in child care, eventually supervising a dozen day care centers and became an active member of the National Association of Educators of Young Children (NAEYC).
She returned to Austin, TX, where she bought a house in 1976 as a single mom, an accomplishment of which she was fiercely proud. At the time of her death in Morris, she still owned that house and regarded it as her homestead, and told everyone, especially me, that she was returning there. We were preparing to visit Austin this week at the time of her death.
While with the Longhorn band, she traveled to Washington, D.C., where the band played for Lyndon Johnson's inauguration. She was a founding member of the University of Texas Longhorn Alumni Band and was present in the stadium with a hurt ankle when they had 1, 000 members marching on the field for the band centennial. She attended the very first set at the Kerrville Folk Music Festival, and the very last set under Rod Kennedy's leadership. Both sets, 30 years apart, were played by the late Allen Dameron. Allen also played at her December 29, 1985 wedding to me, Aubrey McIntosh. We went together to Kerrville during the time of transition from friends to couple. In 2002 she played one of her original songs at Kerrville backed by singer songwriter Brian Cutean. She was very active in the Austin women's music scene and the Austin Pro-Life movement prior to 1992. She arranged for the late Tim Henderson, another Austin singer songwriter and a Ph.D. chemist, to play at my dissertation defense party.
In 1992 a domestic violence shooting resulted in Aubrey McIntosh's injury and his daughter Dierdre McIntosh's death. Joy corresponded with then senator Joseph Biden to give input on the Violence Against Women Act, and formed the Dierdre Foundation, a 501(c)3 corporation dedicated to educate judges, district attorneys, and law enforcement officers regarding policy and best practices regarding domestic violence. She wrote a pro-se appeal and won on many points raised in the wrongful death suit McIntosh vs the city and county of Denver filed in the 10th United States District Court in Denver. This appeal, based on equal protection, is considered a significant win in the gay and lesbian community.
Following the shooting, Joy developed post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) and became a recluse, but nonetheless liked people and made a deliberate point to talk to everyone, whether stranger or old friend, in the various small cafes that we frequent. Her memory progressively failed, and she was diagnosed with mild Alzheimer's. Aubrey kept Joy in Morris for her final years, where she was loved and protected by the community.
"Joy took in stray and hurting souls, and blessed and nurtured them" (contributed by J. Turk) I was one of them. I had given up when she offered help, no strings attached. In the years before we married, she offered rooms in her house to unwed mothers.
She is survived by her college roommate Carol Taylor of Tomball who is K.C.'s aunt, her second husband, Aubrey McIntosh of Morris MN & Austin TX, her daughter K.C. of Lexington, KY, a stepdaughter, Doreen, of Seattle, her firstborn daughter Lori whom she was able to meet in adulthood, several grandchildren and a granddaughter also named Aubrey, through Lori, all redheads located at undisclosed locations in central Texas that she was never able to meet, but whose photographs she held as treasures.
She made a point to tell me three times in the emergency room that she would die that night, and I was to go forward and take care of myself. She sounded at peace with that, matter of fact and not frightened. Under any interpretation, she was my better half.
--Aubrey McIntosh, widower
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