Ranger Joy Stein is an interesting woman. The Ranger resident was born in 1961 in Irvington, N.J. As a young girl she moved to California just outside of Los Angeles before relocating later to Florida, where she graduated from Twin Lakes High School in West Palm Beach.
She went to Palm Beach Junior College, where she earned an associate’s degree in drama.
“I had some of the same teachers that Burt Reynolds did,” she said. Stein went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in education.
Her early jobs consisted of working in the day-care industry as well as being employed at a dress boutique. She also taught television production for 23 years at Wellington High School in Florida before moving to Cherokee County in 1996.
Stein has done many things in her life. She is proud of her accomplishments as a woman.
Along with owning her own home and condo, Stein also owns Vista Realty, where she sold real estate for 23 years before retiring. She continues to assist others in the office as a manager.
This energetic and busy lady also enjoys teaching yoga and is an ordained minister, able to perform marriage ceremonies. She considers herself a type-A personality and loves staying busy.
In 2014, Stein opened The Wherehouse in Murphy, which displays and sells everything from old records and jewelry to clothing, paintings, stones, nick-knacks and much more.
The Wherehouse is also a venue, opening the doors for singers, comedians, poets and other types of performing art. The retail store specializes in the arts, and all of its forms, providing a stage in which to live in the limelight, if even for the moment.
It’s even been said that The Wherehouse is home to a ghost. However, Stein has befriended the elusive spirit and has no problem with it perusing about the store.
She has been working to sell many of the shop’s items at reduced prices in order to make a move to Foster’s Flea Market in Ranger, across from Decker’s, that she calls Joy’s Junk.
Her ultimate dream in life is to get back on stage with the hopes of becoming a Broadway actress in New York. She would also like to produce a movie.
Stein summed up her life by simply saying, “I’m not a jack-of-all-trades, but rather a Joy-of-all-trades.”
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