Luquata "Joyce" Long

Luquata “Joyce” Long was born on September 26, 1946, in Havana, Cuba.

Joyce Long celebrated and embraced her Afro Cuban ancestry. In addition, she was a devout Catholic that accepted Christ.

Joyce Long was gifted at an early age and possessed formidable gifts. As an adolescent, she attended and graduated from East Tech High School. While attending, she had a natural talent for music and played both the violin and piano. She went on to become a classically trained pianist and was the first student at East Tech that was selected to play at Case Western in Ohio for Conservatory Classical Music.

After graduating high school in 1963, Joyce Long worked to pursue her musical aspirations with Motown Records working in artist development (A&R). Three years later, Joyce Long would go on to marry the love of her life, Clarence J. Long on November 26, 1966, in Cleveland, Ohio. They welcomed their first child, Laquita “Shing” Long in 1967.

Shortly after, they moved to Detroit, Michigan where they welcomed their second child, Keisha Long in 1972. Joyce continued her musical journey and obtained an audio and sound engineering certification. After her schooling, she began a career working with RCA (Tortise) Records. Her collaborative musical production and booking management included working with musical artists such as Kiss, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, The Emotions, and a host of local and major talent.

In 1978, Clarence and Joyce welcomed fraternal twins, Racquel and Rachelle Long. Shortly after the birth of her twins, she began to pursue a legal education in paralegal studies ultimately becoming a brilliant paralegal professional.  She was sought after by some of the top Legal Firms in Michigan.

In 1986, the blissful couple welcome their fifth child, April “Starr” Long. After working as a paralegal, she decided to embark on Real Estate. She went on to attend Middleton Real Estate School, becoming a realtor and later becoming a Commercial Real Estate Broker and Real Estate Commercial Developer.

As a trailblazer in the Real Estate industry, Joyce would not only become a Real Estate Commercial Broker and Developer, but she would later open her own successful Real Estate Company (Long and Associate’s Commercial Realty). She became one of the first self-employed women of color Commercial Brokers in Michigan. With great business acumen, she was featured in the Michigan Chronicle Newspaper.  Clarence and Joyce Long were multifaceted individuals that had a series of business ventures throughout their life together owning a dairy queen, barber shop, nightclub, food delivery service and real estate investments.

Joyce’s favorite hobbies were traveling, theatre, art, music, dance, fishing, gardening, cooking, song writing, and music production.

Joyce Long departed this life on January 15, 2023.

She leaves to cherish her memories: Clarence Long (Spouse), Laquita “Shing” Taylor (daughter-deceased), Keisha Bell (daughter), Racquel Long (daughter), Rachelle Long (daughter), April Long (daughter), Genevieve Mattison (granddaughter), Matthew Bell (grandson), Al Bell (Son-in-law),

Gerard Moorman and a host of family and friends.