Joy Allene LeBus

Joy Allene (Buckel) LeBus is survived by her brother Thomas Buckel, her daughter Cherri LeBus Cary, her grandchildren; Rachel Swim (Mir) Hosseini, Jacob (Elizabeth) Swim, Elizabeth Cary (Matthew) Seitman, Hannah (Eli) Cary and Benjamin Cary, as well as her nine grandchildren. She was predeceased by her parents, Theodore and Henrietta Buckel, her brother Arthur Buckel, her daughter Marietta LeBus Swim and an infant grandchild.

Born on a farm near El Centro, CA in 1932 , Joy was a San Diego resident for much of her life, although her career in computer programming took her to Minneapolis St Paul for several years before her retirement. She attended Hoover High School, graduating in 1950 and then attended a small community college in Kansas before returning to San Diego to begin her career. Joy worked as a bookkeeper and in accounting before being hired by Daystrom to learn to program computers in the early 1960s.  Daystrom later became Control Data Corporation and shortly after her retirement Ceridian. Joy was one of very few women programmers in those early days of computers. She rose through the corporate ranks to middle management also rare for women in the industry at that time.

Joy was a dedicated career woman and an effective single mother ( divorced from Richard R. LeBus after an 11 year marriage) who successfully raised two daughters, maintained an impeccable home and spent time with her nieces and nephew, grandchildren and  most recently, her great-grandchildren. She was active in The St. Paul chapter of The American Business Women's Association, the San Diego Chapter of The National Association of Jewish Women, and various Mahjongg and Bridge groups.

Having retired young, Joy came back to San Diego to help her son-in-law David after the death of her daughter Marietta Swim at age 34. Later, her presence was hugely important as she provided caregiving and emotional support to a grandchild diagnosed with autism and epilepsy. She lived in the San Carlos area until she decided to move into senior living community in La Mesa where she lived independently. She celebrated her 90th birthday with her family and friends in October of 2022, marveling at how so many people in attendance were there because of just her and her husband (married in 1956).

Joy was a smart, ambitious, hard-working and optimist woman who loved her friends and family; we will all miss her.