Kent Joyner

Kent was the first born of Janet Joyner and Earl Joyner, a child of love, born on Valentine’s Day, 1962 at Margaret Hague Hospital in Jersey City, NJ. As the result of a tragic medical mishap at birth, Kent sustained a head injury which rendered him developmentally disabled. Despite this disability, his parents gave him more love than any child could ask for. While they were confident Kent would make a great big brother, they went on to have 2 additional children. Kent was the light of his family, and his parents exposed him to all the joys of life — all the kids in the neighborhood enjoyed Kent’s lively and gregarious personality! At an early age, Kent was exposed to the love of the Lord while attending church with his family and later by his dad’s side at Ocean Avenue Baptist Church, where he gained lifelong prayers from a God-loving church family.

At the age of 14, in order to provide Kent with the best wholistic care, Kent’s parents made the difficult decision to place him at Hunterdon Developmental Center (HDC), one of the few State-run Intermediate Care Facilities in NJ for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities. Kent has since lived at HDC for 47 years, which became his forever home with a loving staff that cared for all of his specialized needs, while ensuring his safety and well-being. While at HDC, Kent enjoyed a host of community outings, developmental activities, special campus activities, such as ice cream socials, theatrical plays, picnics, holiday events, and family gatherings. Kent even held a job for years at HDC as a DJ, stemming from his great love of music and dancing. He inherited the love of music from his mom who sang to him while pregnant and always had a variety of tunes playing at the house. Later, his dad religiously toted records weekly to HDC for Kent’s enjoyment during family visits. As many of those records became broken or scratched, thankfully Kent adapted to digital music, but would faithfully ask anyone who would listen “radio please”!

Although Kent was away at HDC, his doting family visited him on a weekly basis to enjoy outings, long car rides, meals, and of course music. His parents joined the Association for Hunterdon Developmental Center (AHDC) Board of Trustees early on to remain involved as advocates for HDC residents. Kent’s devoted sister currently sits on the AHDC Executive Board as 1st Vice President. AHDC has made and continues to make great strides in support of HDC residents through advocacy, awareness, and fundraising.

While Kent endured a tough set of cards at the onset of life, he has been blessed to have a truly loving family, and a bonus HDC family that has shown him love and attentive care for 61 years.

Kent leaves behind one brother (Douglas), one sister (Sheri), one sister-in-law (Monica), 2 nephews (Isaac & Bankston), and a host of other relatives and loved ones.

In lieu of flowers, kindly make donations to:

    Association for Hunterdon Developmental Center (AHDC)

    c/o Stephen Ferguson

    40 Catherine Court

    Cedar Grove, NJ 07009