A 57-year-old Eufaula woman was killed by lightning during a routine stroll through a cemetery Friday evening.

Joy Ann Rogers was walking through Greenwood cemetery shortly before 7 p.m. when a thunderstorm broke out and she sought shelter under a tree, according to her uncle Joe Johnson of Oklahoma City.

Lightning struck the tree and killed Rogers. Eufaula Police Chief David Bryning said his department was notified at 6:43 p.m. that a person was lying on the ground near a tree that appeared to have been struck by lightning.

EMS arrived minutes later and pronounced the victim deceased.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends,” Bryning said.

Johnson said Joy loved the outdoors and being outside in nature.

“She loved to walk through the cemetery,” he said. “She did it religiously.”

She lived in an apartment complex near the cemetery with her mother, Loda Joy Johnson (Joe’s sister) and son, Michael James Hallmark, 26.

On the day of the tragedy, Johnson said, Joy had been watching a movie on TV with her mother and when it ended she went to the cemetery.

“She had a mile course that she walked,” Johnson said.

As she was walking, Johnson said the storm blew up and there was a lot of lightning.

“She sought shelter under a large Cottonwood,” he said.

As she sat on a bench under the tree a lightning bolt struck it and killed her.

“She was a very talented artist,” Johnson said, noting that in 1993, when he was mayor, she helped Eufaula Main Street restore a historic Coca Cola sign on the side of a downtown building across from Mama Tig’s restaurant.

He described his niece as “very creative in the way she lived. She was happy, fun loving and willing to help anybody with anything. She was in tune with mother nature.”

Johnson said Joy almost died four or five years ago.

“She had a stroke and we thought she would never leave the hospital. She couldn’t talk or do anything. But she fought her way through it,” he said.

He said her favorite song was “Joy to the World,” which was a testament to our outlook on life.

She is survived by her son, her mother and her father, Archie Rogers of Canadian.

A Celebration of Life service will be held at 1 p.m., Thursday, July 3 at the Hunn Black & Merritt funeral home.