Obituary: Imogene Joy Spiegel

Imogene Joy Parrott Spiegel

Imogene Joy Parrott Spiegel died on November 26, 2020, at the age of 93, in her home of 55 years in Bristol, Tennessee. She was preceded in death by parents, Mary Pennington Parrott and husband Robert; husband, Robert Spiegel; sisters, Elizabeth Jewell Sharp and Janice Katherine Parrott; brother-in-law, Robert Estes Sharp; nephew, Robert Estes Sharp, Jr.; and son-in-law, James M. Hopkins.

Joy was raised in the Campbell County coal camp of Westbourne, Tennessee. When her miner father Robert died of pneumonia, her mother Mary Parrott kept the family together and made ends meet by raising chickens and taking in wash. All three girls excelled in school. Joy graduated from business school and worked for one of the last patent medicine companies, Scalf’s Indian River Medicine Company of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where she met Bob Spiegel, the young president of Southern Drug Company of Knoxville. They married and started a family in Knoxville, where Robbie and Kathy were born, then followed Bob’s career to Winston-Salem and later to Bristol, Tennessee. Joy was content to live the life of housewife, mother, and occasional substitute teacher until she got the chance to keep books for Virginia Wholesale Company. Joy Spiegel was one of the most generous people you could meet. She could not turn down a request for help. Her niece Mary called her an island of tranquility in the whirlwind of her children and their friends. Joy’s rich and productive life was cut short by Alzheimer’s disease.

She is survived by beloved and devoted caregivers, which include her son, Robert Spiegel and daughter-in-law, Donna Kay Coffey; beloved daughter, Kathy Spiegel of Sharon Township, Michigan; nieces, Sharon Sharp Bull and husband Keith of Machipongo, Virginia, Mary Sharp Bruce and husband Greg of LaFollette, Tennessee, and Shirley Davis of Lake City, Tennessee; caregivers, Muhammad and Rifqa Abdullah; grandchild, Emad Abdullah; great-grandchildren, Zoey, Trinity, and Paisley Woods-Abdullah; and great-nieces and nephews, LeEllen Green and husband Darrell, Adam Bruce and wife Ashley, Mary Elizabeth Francia and husband Nick, Conner Bruce, and Laura Green Holman and Bobby Green.

Joy’s family wishes to thank the many caregivers, doctors, nurses, and hospice personnel who helped make her last fourteen years a time to cherish by those she left behind.

Condolences and memories may be shared with the family and viewed by visiting www.oakley-cook.com. Arrangements especially for Joy and her family have been made through Oakley-Cook Funeral Home & Crematory.

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.