Joan Fralix Payne

Joan "Joann" Fralix Payne, 85, of Ravenel, South Carolina, entered into eternal rest on Sunday, October 9, 2022.  She passed peacefully at home, surrounded by children and grandchildren and holding the hand of her loving husband, Bob. 

The funeral service will be held at 2:00pm on Wednesday, October 12, 2022 in the J. Henry Stuhr West Ashley Chapel, 3360 Glenn McConnell Parkway, Charleston, SC. 

The family will receive friends prior to the service beginning at Noon.

Interment will follow at Christ-St. Paul's Church Cemetery, 4981 Chapel Road, Hollywood, SC 29449.

Joann was born in Charleston, South Carolina on June 20, 1937. She graduated from Chicora High School in 1955.

There are many interesting and poignant things about Joann’s 85 years, but above all else, the true story of Joann is a love story for the ages.

Joann and Bob found each other in 1966. Bob was an auditor for the Navy and Joann worked in accounting for the Naval Supply Center. The two fell in love immediately and it didn’t take long for Bob to propose. The couple were married on May 13, 1966 in Charleston.  

After the wedding, the couple began their life together and moved into a small home in West Ashley. Bob instantly became “Dad” to sons Glenn (10), Rusty (8), Alan (7) and Randy Cooper (6). The next year, they welcomed their daughter, Janice.  

The home was filled with lots of action, a wide variety of sports, oceans of home-cooked Southern meals and loads of love. 

Joann poured her life, energy and many talents into her children and her home. She was driver, teacher, coach, tutor, advocate and cook.  Joann spent so much time at the Stono playground that she eventually was hired as the playground director.  

Over the next decades, Joann shepherded her flock through high school and on to college, proudly sending two children to Texas A&M (Alan & Randy) and two to the University of South Carolina (Rusty and Janice).  

In 1988, the couple began their “empty nest” years with a move to Ravenel, South Carolina. Jo and Bob did everything together, as an inseparable team. By all accounts, their romance and love for one another grew and blossomed in their retirement years. They shared many cruises and they loved visiting the homes of their children and grandchildren.  Bob summed it up well this week. “We got the life we dreamed of, and then some.”

Joann is survived by her beloved and devoted husband, James Robert Payne, Jr.; sons Rusty Cooper (Cindy) and Alan Cooper (Donna); daughter, Janice Jester (Jay); sisters, Marlene Knight (Melvin), Annette Leonard (d. Charles), Deborah Vergere (John); brothers, Henry Fralix (Ann), Robert Fralix, Sr. (Shirley); sister-in-law Deloris Fralix; grandchildren, Crystal Ward, Valerie Cooper, Glenn Cooper (Sydney), Travis Cooper (Hannah), Russell Cooper, Heather Cooper and Courtney Cooper, Candice Roussi (Humza), Ashley Stewart (Derek), Chaz Cooper (Sara Kathryn), Chace Cooper, Carlton Jester, Walker Jester, Ellie Jester and more than a dozen great-grandchildren. 

Joann was predeceased by her sons Glenn Barry Cooper and Randy Theodore Cooper; by sister, Barbara Hill and by brothers Herbert Fralix and James Fralix.