Mary Joyce Peters

Joyce Coulon Peters, prominent Democrat well known on the local, state and national political scene for the last six decades died on March 5th, 2015. Everyone who knew her, even briefly, will remember her amazing sense of humor, her ability to turn any situation into a hilariously funny story, her devastating wit and optimism. She was recognizable by an elegant and original personal style and those ever present hats. Born into a family of jewelers, craftsmen and musicians all deeply involved in the political life of San Antonio, activism was acquired around the dinner table. Descended from Parisian jewelers who immigrated to New Orleans while still under French rule and then to San Antonio in 1900, her father, Charles Coulon was both a manufacturing jeweler and symphony flutist who wrote the charter for and served as first president of the local musicians union. Her mother, Esther Little, (of Little’s Boot Makers family) a concert singer, raised Joyce and her sister Lois as classical musicians. The sisters often performed at charitable events for the mentally and physically impaired. Deciding against a life in performing arts Joyce married her first and lifelong love, Wallis Peters, an active member of
Communication Workers local, who encouraged her interest in politics. In her decades of Bexar County politics Joyce served as state Democratic committeewoman, president of the Democratic Women of Bexar County, director of the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education and aide to two state legislators. Her tenure as Bexar County Democratic Chairman is still remembered as her finest hour. Presiding during President Carter's successful campaign, Joyce funded the local party coffers with giant Margarita Festivals and provided Demo Party offices throughout the state with hundreds of dozens of gold peanut pendants and lapel pens, easy fund raising tokens of the Carter campaign. Continuing her activism for mental and physical health issues, Joyce Peters became deeply involved in Arthritis, first as chairman of the South Central Texas Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation, and serving two terms in the house of delegates of the Arthritis Foundation and chaired the government affairs committee of the National Arthritis Foundation. A frequent visitor to Washington DC as informal advisor to both Presidents Carter and Clinton, she also successfully lobbied for passage of the 1980 Arthritis Act which funded research for new treatments. She chaired the task force for handicapped access to public transportation for VIA. In recent years Joyce drastically cut back on her public life to care for her husband during his long final illness and personal health problems continued to curtail her former high level of visibility. She continued to act as a private advisor, connecting people behind the scenes. Her last official duties were on the Committee to establish the Congressman Henry B. Gonzales Memorial Library. Joyce is survived by her daughter Peggy Peters, several nieces and numerous cousins in the Coulon, Little and Wallis families. For further information, friends and family are asked to make email contact at pegpeters@sbcglobal.net.