ARTHUR JOYAL

Arthur Joyal, 96, passed away on Wednesday morning May 17, 2023, at Kent Hospital. He was born on March 7, 1927, in West Warwick, RI and was the last of five children of the late Édouard Joyal II and Marie-Rose (Lebrun) Joyal. Mr. Joyal is predeceased by his wife Cécile Marie (Lévèsque) Joyal, his older siblings Édouard Joyal III, Rosa (Joyal) Bourgault, Raȏul Joyal, and Leo Joyal, as well his oldest son Briand A. Joyal.

Mr. Joyal grew up living on his family’s farm during the Great Depression. Like many families, the aftermath of the times financially devastated the Joyal family forcing them to sell off their cows & pigs, the farm itself, and eventually forced Mr. Joyal to quit school early by the 9th Grade to assist the family with their struggles. Alongside his older brothers, Mr. Joyal took any work he could as a laborer on other farms in Kent County, as well as odd jobs land clearing, doing carpentry, milling lumber, cement & masonry work, house painting & plastering, and hand-dug excavation. From 1944 to 1946 Mr. Joyal proudly served his country in World War II in the U.S. Army-Air Corps in Europe as a truck driver specializing in heavy transport. Upon his arrival in Europe, Mr. Joyal hauled heavy machinery and fuel for American Bomber & Fighter Planes to American Air Bases all over France and Germany which was crucial as the Allied Forces advanced pushing forward to eventually win the war. Upon Germany’s surrender, Mr. Joyal’s last orders were to stand guard outside the Nuremberg Trials for Nazi war crimes against humanity and was honorably discharged in 1946 as the trials concluded.

Immediately, after the war, Mr. Joyal took a job at East Greenwich Dairy and worked his way up through the company over his 24-year career starting as a delivery milkman to eventually becoming the route manager shop foreman. Upon his arrival back to the United States, it was also when Mr. Joyal met the love of his life, Cecile M. Lévèsque who he proudly admitted to everyone in the neighborhood that he would marry one day. They married on Memorial Day Weekend, May 28th, 1949, were together 71 years, and were married for 68 years, before his wife’s passing in December of 2017. Mr. & Mrs. Joyal were the ultimate team, had a bond like no other, and raised three sons together: the late Briand A. Joyal, Denis R. Joyal, and Paul J. Joyal. In 1971 Mr. Joyal & his wife Cécile, along with his sons, took on their biggest and most successful undertaking yet as they started Joyal’s Liquors Inc. which grew and expanded four times in the Pawtuxet Valley over the next 48 years in business before being sold in late 2019.

Over the next 48 years, “Mr. J” was THE Boss, and as he ran Joyal’s Liquors he touched many lives and had a very deep impact on many families in Kent County. Mr. J. could be known for a hard exterior but in truth he was a kind, generous, charitable man who anonymously made regular annual large donations with his wife Cécile to his parish, any veterans cause, animal rescues, and St. Jude’s Children's Hospital just to name a few, as well as helping those immediately around him. Many families, friends, as well as past/present employees of Mr. Joyal always comment on how he was a man that helped “that time I needed a loan” or how he randomly bought toys, games, winter jackets, or candy for the children of his staff over the years, simply “just because.”

Those who knew him best, will always say Mr. Joyal was a man who loved his family and his Country, and he would do anything for either. He was a man who had come from nothing, lived the American Dream, and over his 96 years, gained priceless wisdom by the lessons he learned the hard way, and taught those around him as he was always willing to share his stories and advice to those who would listen. 

He stressed that honesty, hard work, ambition, and drive will accomplish anything, and is quoted in countless one-liners and words of wisdom, some memorable for the clever message, some for their humor and vulgarity. 

Mr. Joyal leaves behind his two remaining sons, Denis R. Joyal and his wife Karen of Warwick, and Paul J. Joyal and his wife Elizabeth of West Warwick. He was the grandfather or “Pepere” to Sheena M. Morrison and her husband Matthew Morrison, Thomas P. Joyal, and Emily E. Martinez and her husband Joe Martinez, and great-grandfather to Declan J. Secor.

His Funeral will be Monday, May 22, 2023, at 10:45am from the Iannotti Funeral Home at Maple Root, 2000 Nooseneck Hill Rd., Coventry RI, with a Concelebrated Mass of Christian Burial at 12:00 PM in Saints John and James Church in West Warwick. Interment with military honors will follow at the RI Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Exeter. Visiting hours will be Sunday from 2:00 – 5:00 PM. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations should be made to Operation Stand Down RI, 1010 Hartford Ave., Unit 1, Johnston, RI 02919.

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