She was the third of six children with Kenny and Marjorie being older and Bob, Sue, and Connie following her.

Some of the fond memories that Joyce had of her childhood included going into the alfalfa field two or three times a day and gathering turkey eggs. Without their mother’s knowledge, she and Marjorie also used turkey eggs to hold their mud pies together.

She also recalled driving a truck on the bombing range at Salina picking up prairie hay bales while bomber planes flew over and landed at Shilling Air Force Base.

Joyce attended grade school and high school at Roxbury where she met her future husband Dale Becker.

On April 17, 1949, she and Dale were married in Roxbury where Dale continued farming with his father. Six months after they were married, they took a belated honeymoon to Colorado. They drove Dale’s brand new 1948 half-ton Chevy pick-up, which he had rigged up as a homemade camper using steel rods and canvas mounted on the pick-up bed, and they slept there every night.

Around this time Joyce’s dad, Artie, found a baby pig running down the road, so he picked it up and gave it to Joyce and Dale to raise. Eventually, that sow's first litter was sold to purchase their first refrigerator.

Over the next 6 ½ years, they grew from a couple to a family of six after having Mike, Deborah, Denise, and Mark. In 1958, Dale and Joyce took over the family farm from his dad and they moved to what is now called Deere Farm.

Joyce managed to keep the house; care for the kids; raise a garden; can tomatoes, green beans, and corn; make pickles; freeze strawberries; sew all of the girl’s clothes and most of the boy’s; and work as a farmhand in her spare time, as if she had any.

In 1971, Joyce started driving a school bus for Smokey Valley School District as a substitute for Denise, which turned into a full time job until she retired in 1996.

She enjoyed going to Branson with her sisters, watching grandkids play sports and perform in musicals, and sewing and crocheting all kinds of things for family and friends.

Several of the grandchildren have fond memories of the pink apple jelly she always made that they loved so well and her famous chocolate chip cookies.

Joyce is survived by her husband Dale, her sisters Marjorie Dauer, Sue Shea and Connie Ash, her brother Bob, her four children, seventeen grandchildren, and fifteen great-grandchildren as follows:

Mike and his wife Cinda - daughter Tarah and her husband Craig Rankin and their children Isaac, Timothy, Daniel, Abigail, Grace and Glori; son Joel and his wife Crissa Becker and their children Seth, Jesse, and Sarah Grace; daughter Anna and her husband Wayne Kingsley and their children Cole and Mason; and daughter Leah Becker.

Deborah and her husband Steve Douglas - son Timothy and his wife Heather and their children Damon and Ivie; daughter Tristin Douglas; son Thomas Douglas; son Trenton Douglas; son Thane and his wife Kirstin Douglas; son Tyson and his wife Shelby Douglas and their daughter Kieran.

Denise and her husband Harry Staedtler; son Bryan and his wife Shayla Moffitt; son Micah Moffitt and his daughter Jaden; son Drew Moffitt; daughter Emily Moffitt.

Mark and his wife Kathy Becker - son Matthew and his wife Briana Becker; daughter Amy Becker; son Tyler Becker.

Joyce was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Kenny and Denise’s infant daughter Krysta.

A celebration of a life service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, August 19th at the Roxbury United Parish, Roxbury.

Memorials may be made to Hospice Care of Kansas, McPherson or the Kansas Bible Camp.