Kathleen "Joy" Joy (Robertson) Luke

It is with great sadness that Joy Luke, 85, passed away peacefully at home in Miramar Beach, Florida on Monday, July 20, 2026.

She was born in Bristol, England in 1941. Her parents were John and Kathleen Robertson. Joy married Robert Luke in 1968.

She grew up in the Cotswold district of England and started work at an early age with the BBC as a Producer's Assistant in Sports and Outside Broadcasting, producing as many as twenty-eight live broadcasts each month.

Joy came to America in 1970 with her husband and became the Executive Secretary for the Kalamazoo Michigan Chamber Music Society. She helped to found and develop the Cooperative Education Program at Truman State University in Missouri.

In 1977, she founded the Bloomington Auction Gallery and steered the business into a well-known International Auction Gallery, becoming one of the most prominent and respected auction galleries in the mid-west. In her forty-year profession, she was a Master Personal Property Appraiser, specializing in the fine arts and personal property and a Certified Auctioneer Association Member.

A Certified Instructor for the State of Illinois and the State of Wisconsin, Joy taught courses for the National Auctioneers Association and Illinois State Auctioneers Association. She was awarded the Paul Harris Award by Rotary International for her years of devoted fund-raising services to many charities. She sold the business in 2007.

In 1991, Joy was the Founder of the Pickard Collectors Club, an International not-for-profit organization devoted to the appreciation and study of American hand-painted Pickard porcelain.

Since retirement in Florida, she found time to truly devote days to writing,  painting, gardening, cooking, bird watching and enjoying her beloved, Tibetan Spaniel dogs, Pippin and Sparrow. She wrote and illustrated two children’s books, The Story of Pippin and Dear Pippin. She also restarted playing the piano.

Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Davis-Watkins Funeral Home in Miramar Beach.

There will be a small private burial at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bloomington, Illinois and there will be a celebration of Joy's life in Sandestin later in the autumn, to be announced.

To share memories and sign the guestbook please visit, www.daviswatkins.com

Memorial donations in Joy's honor can be sent to the Tibetan Spaniel TSCA Rescue and Health Trust at https://tstrust.org/donate