Moore, Joye Pamela Arnold

Women's Army Corps

January 7, 1943

Army Certificate of Achievement

Joye Pamela Arnold was born in Danville, KY, the daughter of Adam Shirley Arnold, Sr. and Alice Hambleton Arnold. Her father was from Evansville, IN, where he had worked at the Gaines Funeral Home. Joye's mother was from Kentucky. After her parents were married they lived in Danville, where her father was a funeral director, according to the 1920 U.S. Census. The entire family is enumerated in the 1930 U.S. Census. They had moved to Lexington, KY, where Shirley Arnold owned Arnold's Funeral Home at 424 N. Upper Street. His business is listed in the Lexington city directory. 

Their daughter Joye was mentioned in the local newspapers several times during her school years; she was a good student and active in school activities and organizations as well as  community organizations. In 1928 her name was included in the list of third grade honor roll students at Russell School in Lexington. Her name would be included among the honor roll students for most of her school years.

In 1934, she was one of the young women admitted to the Girl's Friendly Society at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Lexington. In October 1936, she was elected one of the three social directors of the Sub-Debs and scheduled to host the group's next meeting. The following year, Joye Arnold was one of the scrapbook winners on "Flood Tragedies," a response to the Ohio River flooding in 1937. That same year she was president of the student members of the Dunbar High School library staff; she had been a member since 1935. She gave a presentation for National Book Week in October 1937.

The following year, Joye was a senior at Dunbar High School when she joined the debate team. This was a busy year for her. She was in the cast of the high school musical, "The Swami of Bagdad." She was also a member of the Girl Reserves of the Phyllis Wheatly YWCA and was among the group of young women who attended the district conference in Paris, KY. The group was led by the organization chair, Mrs. Ada H. Taylor. In May 1938, Joye helped co-sponsor a style show at Pleasant Green Church for the benefit of the Lone Star Club. Joye Pamela Arnold graduated from Dunbar High School in May 1938.

After high school she left Lexington to attend West Virginia State College (now West Virginia State University). It was mentioned in the newspaper that she was returning to college to continue her sophomore year in January 1940. After college, Joye was living in Washington D.C., where she was a stenographer and typist. In 1943, she enlisted in the Army, according to her record in the National Archives, Access to Archival Databases. In 1946, Joye Arnold married Dowell Lafayette Moore from Tuskegee, AL. They got their marriage license in Lexington.

In 1949, Joye P. Moore was a clerk-stenographer in the Professional Services Division at Fort Meade, MD when she received the Army's Faithful Service Award for her dedication and tenacity in completing the processing of thousands of ROTC summer camp physical examination forms. Her award was presented by Colonel G. T. Mackenzie of the University of Kentucky Military Department. According to the newspaper report about her award, Joye Moore was waiting on orders that would send her and her husband, 1st Lt. Dowell Moore, to the Far East.

Joye Moore settled in Detroit, MI and later lived in Oak Park, MI, according to the Public Records Index in Ancestry. Joye Pamela Arnold Moore died in Pontiac, MI, in 2015 and is buried in Detroit, according to the U.S. Obituary Collection in Ancestry.

Sources: Kentucky Birth Index in Ancestry; "Deaths: Shirley Arnold, Sr.," Evansville Press, 2/13/1960, p. 2; U.S. Obituary Collection (Ancestry); Polk's Lexington (Kentucky) City Directory 1931-32, p. 77; "Colored Notes," The Lexington Leader, 1/29/1940, p. 10; "Colored Notes: Marriage licenses," The Lexington Herald, 4/6/1946, p. 8; and "Wins Army's Faithful Service Award," The Lexington Leader, 9/27/1949, p. 10.

Articles with mention of Joye Arnold during her younger years in Lexington, KY: "Colored Notes: Russell School Notes," The Lexington Herald, 11/30/1928, p.13; "Colored Notes," The Lexington Leader, 2/12/1934, p.10; "Colored Notes," The Lexington Sunday Leader, 10/11/1936, p.27; "Colored Notes," The Lexington Herald, 6/2/1937, p.12; "Colored Notes," The Lexington Herald, 11/19/1937, p. 20; "Lexington Colored Notes: Dunbar School Notes," The Lexington Sunday Herald-Leader, 2/20/1938, p.27; "Lexington Colored Notes," The Lexington Sunday Herald-Leader, 3/27/1938, p. 35; "Lexington Colored Notes," The Lexington Sunday Herald-Leader, 4/10/1938, p. 33; "Colored Notes," The Lexington Sunday Herald-Leader, 5/1/1938, p. 31; and "Dunbar finals set for Friday," The Lexington Sunday Herald-Leader, 5/29/1938, p. 10.

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