Doris "Joy" Thurston, 91, passed away peacefully on Saturday, April 4, 2015 at Martin Memorial Medical Center in Stuart, FL. Daughter of the late Pauline and Robert Thurston, she was born in Chicago and grew up in Chappaqua, NY, graduating from Horace Greeley High School in 1941. After studying art for two years at Syracuse University during WW II, she joined the Women's Army Corps (WACs), serving as an Occupational Therapy assistant (1944-46).

As a therapist Doris drew psychological portraits of shell-shocked men. Through discussing the paintings with the men they began the process of healing by talking about themselves and their feelings.

Involved in a very different activity while still in the army, she wrote songs, choreographed dances and played the lead for an original musical about the WACs, "Call Me Madam" that toured VA hospitals in five southern states. Her book, "A WAC Looks Back Recollections and Poems of WW II" was a special project for the Women in Military Service for America Memorial in Washington.

Later Doris received a BS in Education from Tufts University and a diploma from the Boston Museum School of Art where she studied with Ben Shahn, Karl Zerbe, and Oskar Kokoschka. She also attended Connecticut College School of Dance where she studied with Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Jos Limn and Louis Horst.

During one decade of her colorful life, she performed a one-woman comedy act, "Portraits in Song," as "Doris Joy" in supper clubs, night clubs, and army bases from Greenland to South America. In her act she brought a customer to the stage and drew a large character sketch of him or her on an easel while singing witty songs for laughs.

Doris is best known for her powerful religious artwork, particularly 20 large oils interpreting the "Beatitudes" and six expressing "The Lord's Prayer." But other subjects included over 100 "Dance Pastels of the 50s" and her "Political Portraits of the 1960s" John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Richard M. Nixon and other prominent politicians of that era. She painted her "Local Notables" of Stuart, including Evans Crary Sr., Harmon P. Elliott, Warren "Pop" Tilton, and Janet Hutchinson. Doris also painted and sculpted US Army Captain Francis A. Adams when he was 101 years old.

In the 1980s after her father's severe stroke left him paralyzed on one side and unable to speak, Doris created a Stroke and Heart Support Group and led it for several years. She also loved being active in Treasure Coast Toastmasters, where she made many wonderful friends during the over 15 years of her membership. A prolific and poetic author, artist and performer, she will be sorely missed by all who knew her.

Doris is survived by her brother, Donald Thurston, Professor Emeritus of Union College, and his husband, Robert Englebach; her sister in law, Phyllis Thurston; and the extended Thurston family.

To celebrate her life, family and friends are invited to attend a Memorial get-together on Sunday, April 12 at 1:00 p.m. at Unity Church, located at 211 SE Central Parkway, in Stuart.

Contributions may be made in honor of Doris to The Wounded Warriors Project of South Florida, 1335 Old Dixie Highway, Suite #3, Lake Park, Florida 33403 or a charity of your choice.

An Online guestbook is available by visiting www.treasurecoastseawinds.com