On January 12, 2016, beautiful Joy Ann O’Farrell, 78, passed away, surrounded by her family. Joy was born on October 9, 1937 in Cook County, Illinois, and spent her growing up years in La Jolla, California. It was there she married Larry O’Farrell on July 27, 1957 and soon moved to the Seattle area to make their home and raise their family. She sold everything from lingerie to sunglasses, was a district manager for American Building Maintenance and worked at Microsoft for over ten years.
They moved to Kent and spent the early days of retirement making their yard & garden showcase beautiful.
In 2002, they headed for warmer weather to build a home in the Quail Creek Retirement Community of Green Valley, Arizona. She started The Performing Arts Guild at Quail Creek, participating in plays and activities with her many new friends.
She also started the “Women of Quail Creek” women’s club. The first Executive Board of founding members were Joy O’Farrell, Chairman; Joann Street, Membership; Carolyn Ireland, Publicity; Suellen Vatter, Secretary, and Jan Howard, Treasurer. The first meeting of the Women of Quail Creek was held in March of 2004 and with approximately 40 ladies attending. As the QC community began to grow, Joy’s vision was to grow the women’s club — but had no idea how the club would become so popular and significantly grow as it did each year. Today, that “small club” continues to meet monthly and had grown to over 370 members (in 2014). In early 2025, membership grew to over 400 members.
In 2012, they returned to the Pacific Northwest and made their home at Merrill Gardens in Renton. As usual, it wasn’t long before she had many friends and started ‘Story Telling with Joy”; a time of gathering where members of their community could share their life stories.
Joy was vivacious, fun, loved people and hearing their stories and always looked on the bright side of life. She never met a person she didn’t like and everyone who met her wanted to be her friend. She loved music and couldn’t stand the thought of “oldies”… she wanted to listen to whatever was new and fresh. She loved theatre, the color green and beautiful clothes. She was artistic, loved a good sandwich with chips on the side, holiday fun, sitting by the fire and chatting after a family meal. In the last few years, as her health declined and her eyesight dimmed, her vivacious spirit did not.
She is survived by her husband of 58 years, Larry O’Farrell, her children; Kim Kelly, Scott (Kathy) O’Farrell, Brien (Esther) O’Farrell, and Kellie McCarthy. Grandchildren; Kesley, Blythe, Jamie (Jason), McKenzie (Lukas), Brenna, Dekker, Quinn (Jit), Bridget, a great-grandchild on the way and her sister Julie Duer. She was preceded in death by her infant daughter Leigh, and her mother & father, Paul & Lucille Crandell. (Source: Barton Family Funeral Services)
The Women of Quail Creek 