Nicholas Everett Joyner (1871-1959) is the son of Calvin Greenleaf Joyner (1831-1907) and Martha Ann Talley (1876-1968). He enrolled at Centenary College of Louisiana in 1889 and graduated in 1893. In 1893, Joyner became a minister in the Louisiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South and was appointed to serve in the city of Natchitoches. Next, he attended Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tenn.) and earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1897. While much of his subsequent work as a minister was within the Louisiana Conference, he also served the Mexican Border Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South from 1897 to 1903 and again from 1912 to 1915. Within the Louisiana Conference, Joyner’s pastoral appointments included churches in such cities as Lake Charles, Alexandria, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Arcadia, and Minden. He also served as presiding elder of the Alexandria District and the Monroe District. Joyner was also on many of the conference’s boards and committees; this included the board of trustees for Centenary College of Louisiana, Mansfield Female College, and the Louisiana Methodist Orphanage. In 1897, Joyner married Sarah Baker Austin (1876-1968); they had six children.