Note: This message was originally sent on January 30, 2024
You’d expect someone who’d been given the nickname “Her Loveliness” to embody grace, beauty, intelligence, and the sort of charming and delightful personality that would light up any room—Joyce (Boniface) Murphy (’55) was all that and more. Beloved by so many in the Gonzaga community of alumni and friends, her passing at the age of 90 just before New Year’s 2024 shone a light on the indelible impact she, her husband Tom, and their fellow Zags of the Glee Club alumni group have had on generations of Gonzaga students.
In the early 1950s when Joyce was a Gonzaga student, women were still a fairly new addition to campus—the University had only started enrolling female students during the 1948 academic year. By 1951, a women’s service club had been established—the “Zagettes”—in which young ladies served as ushers and sold programs for men’s basketball games and boxing matches. Imbued with school spirit, Joyce joined the Zagettes her freshman year. At the same time, Gonzaga’s claim to fame was its men’s glee club, under the direction of Lyle W. Moore. Some say the Glee Club was the “Zag basketball of its time,” garnering the attention of music fans and affection of students across campus. A talented musician herself, Joyce served as an accompanist for the Glee Club, which performed on stages in Spokane and throughout Washington state. Joyce honed her skills as a self-taught pianist during her childhood in Montana. Her talents were acknowledged by Moore, who was auditioning singers at Joyce’s high school, and she was awarded a full scholarship to Gonzaga. She was the first woman in University history to receive a “full ride” scholarship.
It was through the Glee Club that Joyce met Tom Murphy (’56), a business major and Glee Club member from Spokane by way of St. Louis, Missouri, who, like many who sang under his leadership, greatly looked up to Moore. In the photo below of the Gonzaga Glee Club in 1952-1953, Joyce is pictured fifth from the left in the front row, and Tom is third from the right on the top row.
Joyce and Tom were married in 1953, and after graduating from Gonzaga, they continued making beautiful music together. Together, they raised six children and pursued the American dream. Additionally, they helped to rally the Glee Club alumni and friends to establish the Lyle W. Moore Endowed Scholarship in honor of their former Glee Club director’s 90th birthday — a fund that has provided hundreds of Gonzaga students with critical support since its inception and is among the largest endowed scholarship funds at Gonzaga University.
Joyce lost the love of her life in 2018, but since Tom’s passing, has kept in close contact with her Gonzaga Glee Club family. A devoted wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and Zag, Joyce Murphy will be missed by many, but through the scholarship she helped establish, she will continue to impact Gonzaga University and its students for generations to come.