Joyce Priscilla Tucker Stokes, a retired buyer with the Baltimore City Bureau of Purchases, died of cancer April 23 at Good Samaritan Hospital. The New Northwood area resident was 74.
Born Joyce Priscilla Tucker in Baltimore and raised on Caroline Street, she was the daughter of Samuel and Dorothy Tucker. She was a 1959 graduate of St. Frances Academy and attended Morgan State University. She received an accounting certificate from the American Institute of Banking.
She initially worked for the Social Security Administration at Woodlawn and the old Equitable Bank. She became a Union Memorial Hospital buyer and retired in 2002 from her work in city government.
"She tried to get minorities involved in the city purchasing process," said her son, Todd David Stokes of Pikesville.
She hosted events at Woman Power and was a member of the National Council of Negro Women and the Catholic Daughters of the Americas. She received awards for her work with the city's Combined Charity Campaign.
She was an avid reader and a local historian. She conducted tours at the Frederick Douglass Isaac Myers Maritime Park and Museum in Fells Point.
Ms. Stokes was honored by Mayors Kurt Schmoke and Martin O'Malley for her volunteer work in the arts and African-American studies in the Baltimore school system.
A memorial Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Matthew's Roman Catholic Church, 5401 Loch Raven Blvd., where she was a member.
In addition to her son, survivors include a daughter, Kimberly Yvette Stokes; her mother, Dorothy Tucker; a brother, Larry Tucker, a sister, Janis Fogg; and two grandchildren, all of Baltimore. Her marriage ended in divorce.