Joyce Leblanc was born in September 1924 in the County of Kent, the garden of England. Her father was in the British Army, and the family relocated frequently, but not outside England. She went to nine different schools, and she cried every time they had to move. Leblanc had two siblings, an older sister and a younger brother. Her mother was a homebody, and a great cook, but very savvy. Her mother did not did not approve of Leblanc's dating an American soldier. Leblanc was 14 when the war began in Europe.

Joyce Leblanc's memories of the war are vivid. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] came to power when she was nine. She remembers getting her little togs together to go into the air raid shelter her father designed and built in their back yard in 1938 because he knew there was a war coming. They lived on the outskirts of London, and the Germans bombed England day and night, trying to bring the British to their knees. With her father in the military, and often away from home in France, Leblanc's mother, a strong woman, had to keep the family going. Food became scarce during the German blockade of England, and the family grew vegetables over the roof of their shelter. The children slept in their shoes, in case they had to get up and run in the night. Often the household water supply was cut off because there were dead bodies in the reservoir, and the water barrel had to be cleared of frogs and algae. Sometimes their gas was cut off, and to make tea it was necessary to light a little burner to heat the kettle. Nevertheless, they would brew the tea and salute the flag. The sky could be black with planes bearing swastikas. The children learned to identify the German planes, could draw them, recognize them by their sound, and knew how to respond when they approached. It was frightening, but in a child's eyes, Leblanc said, it was also an adventure. She knew her life was going to change.

Joyce Leblanc said she usually went to school as normal. The teachers came to a point where they wouldn't even interrupt classes; just speak louder to overcome the noise of the planes. Sometimes the students would have to seek refuge under their desks. Leblanc says her parents were very unflappable, and she doesn't remember being afraid. She said the food situation changed; little was available, and much of it was home grown. At 17 she proposed joining the land army, but her father doubted she would want to work like a man. The land army took any woman who could pass the physical to work in horticulture, general farming, and forestry. She accepted the challenge. Her training consisted of classroom work in the mornings and field work in the afternoons. She ultimately admitted, privately, that the job in the orchards nearly killed her. Leblanc said that everyone in England, even the children, followed the news of the war, and when Pearl Harbor was attacked, she wondered if America would join the fight. For a long time, she points out, England stood alone against the hordes. She said the English hoped and prayed that America might help them, and they did, with the first contingents arriving in 1942.

Joyce Leblanc was working in the English land army on a farm that had military housing in 1942. One day, she spied a truck with a white star on its side coming down the road, and mistook the troops for Russians. Remarkably, the first American soldier she saw disembark from the truck eventually became her husband. Leblanc's father taught military engineering and bridge building in nearby Chatham, England, and was not involved in the evacuation of Dunkirk. Leblanc knew about it, but, being English, was sure they would overcome the disaster. She describes her family as a patriotic group. Their spirits were boosted by the involvement of their king [Annotator's Note: George V was king of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and emperor of India during the Second World War], but the most inspiration came from Churchill [Annotator's Note: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill], because he had such a gift with language. Leblanc would supplement her family's food supply with her own rations and produce from the farm where she worked. The presence of the American soldiers did not change the locals' food situation, but she felt they bolstered the morale of the population.

Joyce Leblanc is sure that when the Americans arrived in Europe, the British were encouraged, although they didn't want to hear the Americans brag about their contributions. The British had been at war for a long time, and Leblanc had difficulty picturing life without it. She said it took about nine years for austerity to end. The peace announcement didn't make much difference in her life at first, nor did the Marshall Plan make that great a difference in England in the beginning. German prisoners of war were used, rightfully, according to Leblanc, to help clean up the rubble in her country after the war was over. She didn't like working with the Germans or the Italians assigned to the land army. She was the youngest woman in her camp, and was teased mercilessly for her naivete. She was still only 20 when her American sweetheart of two years proposed in 1945. He was 26. He added the request that the marriage happen on an expedited basis. Leblanc said that kind of appeal wasn't out of the ordinary in war time. Procuring the necessary paperwork took several days, but the couple persevered, and was married within the month.

Joyce Leblanc followed her husband to America after a year of more paperwork and several trips to London for approvals. And she had to wait for G.I. Bride Transportation to kick in. Leblanc was a little higher on the list because her husband had been wounded. She was dreading the move, and found the idea of going to a strange country where she knew only her husband rather terrifying. Moreover, she arrived in a predominantly French environment, and didn't find out until later that the French didn't much like the British because of their ancient history. Leblanc thought she was viewed as an interloper. Her husband got work initially in Federal Transportation, hauling pipes to Texas for the oil industry. He subsequently was hired by the railroad, and settled his family in Lafayette, Louisiana. Post World War 2 America felt very strange to Leblanc, and she didn't have skills or experience to get a good job. She did volunteer work promoting culture, a difficult task at the time. The couple had four children in five years. When she went back to visit England after 21 years, she found it very different from what she had known, and was happy to get back to the familiarity of Louisiana and her family. Leblanc's husband retired in 1980, and almost immediately had a massive stroke, then a heart attack, and died soon after.

Joyce Leblanc said the war taught her how to overcome small trials. Leblanc did what was needed during her three year tenure in the land army, and that means a lot to her today. It was hard, dirty work, but she said she "didn't moan too much." Leblanc rarely talks to a woman who is interested in what happened in the war, and feels it important to teach the younger generations its lessons. She thinks that, as a result of the war, there was somewhat of a leveling of the classes in England, and changed people's thinking forever. Leblanc feels that, thanks to the war, she has had a glimpse of the true nature of humans. She said that if there was any good that comes out of conflict that would be it.