Joy Lancaster Greer Roberts, 75, of Sheridan, died October 13, 2007 at the Sheridan Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center.

Joy was a key figure in the Little Rock business and arts communities for 30 years and was the international lay leader of the Christian Church, disciples of Christ, in 1981-1983, when the denomination numbered about 2 million people.

She was born in Sheridan on July 29, 1932, and graduated from Sheridan High School in 1950. She attended Phillips University at Enid, Oklahoma, and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and did later graduate study in banking at Louisiana State University and at the University of Southern California. She was awarded an honorary doctorate in the Humanities from Phillips University in 1975.

Joy worked at banks in Sheridan, Pine Bluff, and Jonesboro in the early 1950's, and went to work at the state's largest bank, then First National Bank in Little Rock, in 1955. After 10 years as a teller, she became one of the capital city's first top women banking executives in 1965 as vice president in charge of advertising and public relations. She became the bank's public spokesman on most matters, and led its sponsorship of such community outreach programs as the Volunteers in Public Schools and the Arkansas Food Bank. She developed at the bank the first important permanent collections of paintings and sculpture produced exclusively by Arkansas artists, and energetically exhibited and promoted those works in art shows at the bank and elsewhere.

At the bank, she became a Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications in 1983 when a tumultuous merger turned First National Bank into First Commercial Bank, and she retired in 1988. Among her many other notable activities before and after retirement were serving as publicity chairman for the big Billy Graham Crusade in Little Rock in 1989 and as treasurer of senatorial and congressional campaigns of her friend and fellow Grant County native Ray Thornton. She received a special citation from the Arkansas Office of Volunteerism for a lifetime of charitable work.

She was a longtime board member of the Arkansas Arts Center, and also was a board member at the Arkansas Symphony, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and the Arkansas chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. She was a community columnist, writing mostly about the arts and community religious matters, for the Arkansas Gazette in the 1980s.

She was a founding member of the Parkview Christian Church in Little Rock, and a lifelong member of the First Christian Church of Sheridan. She was denominational leader of the Christian Churches of Arkansas for several years preceding her election as Moderator, or lay leader, of the denomination worldwide.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Joe D. and Pauline Speck Lancaster, and a brother, Harold Lancaster. She is survived by her husband, Roy Roberts of Sheridan; two sisters, Nita Webb and Betty Fowlkes, both of Sheridan; and three brothers, Jim Lancaster, Bob Lancaster, and Bill Lancaster, all of Sheridan.

Funeral services will be at Memorial Gardens Chapel in Sheridan on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 10:00 AM, with Rev. Barbara Jones of Little Rock officiating. Burial will be at Sheridan Cemetery by Memorial Gardens Funeral Home. Visitation will be on Monday evening from 6 until 8 PM at the funeral Home. Pallbearers will be her nephews, Jase Goins, Chris Goins, Eric Lancaster, Scott Lancaster, Mike Paul, Brian Fowlkes, Bruce Fowlkes, and Patrick Smith. Memorials are suggested to the Alzheimer's Association or the Arkansas Hospice Foundation, Inc. at 5600 West 12th St. in Little Rock.