Joyce Wolford

Joyce Emma Wolford was born on June 9, 1953 at the Lewellen Community hospital in Lewellen, Nebraska to Morris and Avis (Yetter) Wolford. As a young child she resided at the family farm north of Lewellen and attended the Ash Creek School, District 38. In 1965 the family moved from the Nebraska farm to an Idaho farm for a year, then, moved back to the town of Lewellen where Joyce lived the remainder of her childhood years. She loved spending time with the family dog, Tiny, a Chihuahua/rat terrier cross. Joyce attended the Lewellen Rural High School where she was involved in Class Plays and Pep Club, which won the Conference Outstanding Pep Club Trophy in 1971, the same year she graduated. She also developed a love for reading the classics in high school and willed her ability to be on time for school as well as her ability to do book reports, to others. After high school, Joyce attended Nursing School in Scottsbluff, Nebraska.   Throughout her adult life she worked as a babysitter, waitress and cashier, as well as a Ranch cook. Her job as ranch cook allowed her to do what she truly loved, which was baking, gardening, raising chickens and just the totality of country living. Joyce loved crocheting and making western style jewelry and produced many beautiful pieces of each, which she gave as gift s to those she cared about. Joyce also became very proficient in sign language.  Joyce always wanted children and after her marriage to Art Spencer in 1978, she suffered the devastating loss of three pregnancies over a series of years. However, Go d; in his goodness, granted her a daughter in the way of fostering a teenage girl that became the sunshine of her life. Joyce often spoke of her beloved Vicki and was so proud to be her foster Mom. In this way, God also granted Joyce grandchildren which she was so delighted with. Joyce was blessed with a loving and kind heart and would help anyone in need. She had a happy demeanor and was so much fun to be around. Too late in life it was found she had been born with a defect of the endocrine system which caused her many health issues and in December of 2005, those issues brought her to assisted care at the Callaway Good Life Center in Callaway, Nebraska, where she lived at the edge of cornfields and could still enjoy the sense of country living. For a while at the Center, she volunteered to help maintain the flower beds around the grounds by pulling weeds, hoeing and planting, and dividing bulbs to be replanted for spring flowering. Joyce was called home to be with the Lord on September 10, 2017,and will be greatly missed by her family. Joyce was preceded in death by her father, Morris H. Wolford, a brother in law, James C. Berglund, one niece Christy (Ward) Harbur, maternal grandparents, Ben and Maggie Yetter, paternal grandparents, Walter (Bud) Bessie Wolford. She is survived by her mother, Avis (Yetter) Wolford of North Platte, NE, a brother, Doug (Teresa) Wolford of Big Springs, NE, 4 sisters, Patricia Berglund of Lewellen, NE Aneita (Kim) Strasburg of Arnold, NE, Doris Wolford of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Deloris (Tom) Ward of Brady, NE, a foster daughter Vicki Daugherty and children Ashley, Chalie and Chase. Memorial services will be held on Sunday September 17, 2017 at 1:00 PM at the Community Wesleyan Church at Lewellen, NE with Pastor Doug Wolford officiating.  A private family burial will be held at the Ash Creek Cemetery at Lewellen, NE.  Memorials are suggested to the Callaway Good Life Center.