Nina Joyner often said she'd rather fish than eat — unless she was eating fish she'd caught.
"She was an excellent cook," said Dr. Claude Joyner, her husband of 52 years. "When we had a place at Pawley's Island, S.C., she'd go out early in the morning and catch whitings and cook them with eggs for breakfast. You were eating the fish 30 minutes after they were caught."
Nina M. Joyner, who had lived in Sewickley since 1972, died Monday, Sept. 30, 2002, in Allegheny General Hospital, North Side. She was 72.
She was born Dec. 21, 1929, in Winston-Salem, N.C., and attended Salem College there and graduated from Holton Arms in Washington, D.C.
While living in Philadelphia, Mrs. Joyner belonged to the Junior League and the Cosmopolitan and Cynwyd clubs.
In Sewickley, she was a member of the Edgeworth Club, the Little Garden Club and St. Stephen's Episcopal Church.
Joyner said his wife's chief activity at the church was the Chancel Society, which she headed for several years. He said the society "prepares the altars, is responsible for the drapings in the sanctuary and prepares everything for Communion and the (Communion) kits the rector takes out for shut-ins."
He said one reason church work was important to her was "a very strong Episcopal heritage" that stemmed from a great-grandfather, who was the first Episcopal rector in Winston-Salem.
Furthermore, "she was a very caring individual who always thought of others before she thought of herself and always with remarkable good humor. She had quite a sense of humor. Even up until a week before her death, we could joke."
Mrs. Joyner's major activity at the Edgeworth Club was playing bridge — which she had taught in Philadelphia — about twice a week.
Joyner said gardening "wasn't a major avocation" for her. "Roses and tulips were her main loves. The garden club was an enjoyable place to get together with people you know."
Mrs. Joyner also wrote books on subjects such as antique furniture, furniture refinishing and building and restoring dollhouses.
"When I was a resident and fellow in cardiology at the University of Pennsylvania, we had modest means, and she found that the best way she could furnish our apartment was to go to junk stores," Joyner said.
"She always appreciated quality goods. Out of economic necessity, she would pick up old furniture and learned how to redo it and thought this would be of interest to other people."
Mrs. Joyner's interest in dollhouses started while she was a young girl, "and then she found that maybe it would be fun to do it herself," her husband said.
When their son was in junior high school, she often told some of his artistic friends what she had in mind, they would produce drawings and she would build the houses.
"One I contributed to was a real log house," Joyner said. "We had to whittle the round dowels so they would fit, and that was a lot of fun. It was not like buying a Lincoln Log set."
In addition to her husband, Mrs. Joyner is survived by a son, C. Courtney Joyner of Los Angeles; a daughter, Glenn J. Dias, and her husband, Kieran, of Orangeburg, S.C.; and a grandson.
Private burial will be Saturday at Panther Creek, the family's estate in North Carolina. Arrangements by Copeland's Sewickley/Irvine Chapel, Sewickley.
The family requests contributions to the Pulmonary Education Fund at Allegheny General Hospital, 320 E. North Ave., Pittsburgh PA 15212.
Arrangements by Copeland's Sewickley/Irvine Chapel, 702 Beaver St., Sewickley.
