Joyce Jean Hinnant Blackley

Joyce Jean Hinnant Blackley of Raleigh passed away peacefully on April 29, 2025 at the SECU Hospice House in Smithfield after being in declining health for three years due to hepatocellular carcinoma. Jean was born October 8, 1935 in Wilson County. She was one of eleven children born to the late Ida Flowers Hinnant and Archie Hinnant.

In addition to her parents, Jean was preceded in death by her husband of 57 years, Jesse Carlton Blackley. She was also preceded in death by her brothers, Johnnie, Willie, and Robert Hinnant; sisters, Myrtie Phillips, Katie Smith, Naomi Hinnant, Margie Hines, and Ruby Hinnant.

She is survived by her daughter, Deborah Cox and husband Paul Alan Cox, Jr. of Garner; grandsons, Carl Cox (Allison) of Spring, Texas and Addison Cox (Maggie) of Greenville, NC; and six great-grandchildren, Hudson, David, Caroline, Stella, Carly, and Abigail; and sisters, Gerlene Edwards of Johns Creek, GA, and Mary Gay of Virginia Beach, VA; and many nieces and nephews.

Jean's career included working in the FCX Home Office until 1986 when the business was bought out by Southern States. She then began working with her husband at Oak Park Union 76. When her husband had to close his business in 1993 due to his health, she was employed at Price's Paint and Body Shop until she retired in April 2006 to care for him until his passing in September 2010.

Jean especially enjoyed spending time with her family at the beach and attending her grandsons' school and sports events when they were younger. Jean was a loving wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother and great-grandmother known affectionately as Grandma Jean.

The family would like to thank the staff at the SECU Hospice House in Smithfield for their professional and compassionate care for the last weeks of Jean's life.

A funeral service will be held at 2:00 PM on Monday, May 5, 2025 at Bryan-Lee Funeral Home, 1200 Benson Road, Garner, NC 27529. The family will receive friends and relatives at the funeral home from 3:00 to 5:00 PM on Sunday, May 4, 2025. The burial will follow at Raleigh Memorial Park, 7501 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27612.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation North Carolina Raleigh Office, (Team Super Dylan) at 343 E. Six Forks Road, Suite 120, Raleigh, NC 27609 or online at:

https://fundraise.cff.org/Trianglenc2025/Team/View/204459/Super-Dylan

or Ernest Myatt Presbyterian Church, 4926 Fayetteville Road, Raleigh, NC 27603.