Joyce Juchau

It is with sadness that we say goodbye to Joyce, our dear sister, aunt, and friend who passed away peacefully at the age of 90 during the early morning hours of March 4, 2022, after a long illness.  She had been living at Creekside Senior Living in Bountiful, Utah for the past three and a half years.

Joyce was born September 3, 1931, at the home of her parents, Levere Juchau and Elda Rawlings Juchau in the small farming community of Virginia, Idaho.  She was always tiny but full of energy and loved growing up on the farm with her older brother Clyde and sister Ruth and two younger brothers Mont and Dan and later a little sister, Karen.  In recent times she had weekly Sunday phone visits with her brother, Mont, and they did a lot of reminiscing about those early years and the fun times they had.  She loved those visits!

Joyce attended Virginia and Downey Elementary Schools and graduated from Downey High School in 1949.  She received her Registered Nursing degree from Bannock Memorial Hospital in conjunction with Idaho State College in Pocatello, Idaho. After working in the nursing field in various capacities she returned to school at Utah State University in Logan where she earned her degree in Public Health Nursing.

Her work experience included teaching LPN classes in Caldwell, Idaho, public health nurse with Box Elder County Health Department, public health nurse with Cache County Health Department, registered nurse at LDS Hospital, Holy Cross Hospital, University of Utah Hospital, and the Utah State Department of Health where she worked with the Women’s Cancer Screening Program.

During the time when she was working at the Cache County Health Department in Logan, she met Margaret Jones, who joined the church in Wales and had come to stay with a family in Wellsville.  Joyce and Margaret became good friends and continued to be the best of friends until Joyce passed away.  Margaret was especially kind and caring of Joyce during these last three years of her illness, for which her family is very grateful. They were like sisters and Margaret did many things with the Juchau family. They loved to travel and took a lot of tours and cruises together, their favorites being several USA Temple Tours. One of the guides remarked that “Joyce was always the life of the party.” She had the gift of making others laugh and smile.

She enjoyed (twice) riding down the Grand Canyon on a mule and several river running and camping trips; she liked to watch the Olympics on TV especially the ice skating and winter events. She was a contributor to Public Television and enjoyed watching public television programs, especially Masterpiece Theater and the Mystery programs and concerts.  Her favorite television programs included Animal Planet, Star Trek and Jeopardy. She enjoyed season tickets to the Capitol theater and Ballet West. She enjoyed monthly luncheons with a group of friends called “Phantom Friends” (who were fans of Phantom of the Opera which Joyce saw three times). She liked dragons and had several porcelain figurines of dragons; she also liked geckos and especially liked the gecko on the Geico television advertisement.

Joyce was a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and served a mission in the Southern California Mission in 1958-59 which she really enjoyed. During her retirement years she served two consecutive Church service missions: one as an usher at the Tabernacle and Conference Center for seven years, and one other at the Family History Department at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for 12 years

Joyce was preceded in death by her parents; her oldest brother, Clyde and his wife, Carol; and her youngest brother, Dan who died at age twenty-two; and her sister-in-law Betty Juchau.

She is survived by her sister, Ruth Lott (Dan) of Providence, Utah; her brother, Mont (his Wife, Betty, deceased) of Bothell, Washington; her younger sister, Karen of Logan, Utah; her best friend of fifty-four years, Margaret Jones of Bountiful, Utah; and many nieces and nephews.

A grave side service will be held for her in the spring in the Downey, Idaho Cemetery where she will be buried next to her parents.   We all loved her and will miss her very much!

The family would like to thank the staff of Creekside Senior Living for the great care that they have given Joyce for the last 3 and a half years and express their heartfelt thanks to the staff of Renew Home Health and Hospice (Marina, Bailey and Rhonda) for their kind, loving and compassionate care.