Joyce Hickey

Esther Joyce Hickey was born to Arthur Judson and Anna Mattingly Spaulding on April 22, 1930 in Ottawa, IL and died at her home on January 21, 2022. She was preceded in death by her husband, Gerald, her parents, and sisters Lou Alice, Naomi, Anna Mae, and Etta Garnett and her brother, Arthur Judson (Art or Jud).
Joyce, as she was known, graduated from Mendota High School, Mendota, IL in 1948 and Chicago Wesley Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in 1951 as a Registered Nurse. She and Gerald were married in Chicago July 9, 1950. After graduating from nurse's training, Joyce and Gerald moved back to the Thurman, IA area. The first of their four children arrived January 1952. In 1953, they moved to Shenandoah. Joyce practiced nursing at Hand Community in Shenandoah and Grape Community Hospital in Hamburg and in public health until her retirement. She was an active Girl Scout leader from 1960 through 1974 and was a member of the DAR. In 1980, they moved to their beloved farm in Northboro. There they raised chickens, ducks, guineas, peacocks, cats, dogs, sheep, calves, pigs, horses, goats and a garden. Joyce canned or froze much of the produce from the garden.
She is survived by her children Paula Sothman of Shenandoah, IA, Brenda (Doug) Cappel of Deer Park, WA, Patsy (Gerry) Thoene of Hartington, NE, and Leonard (Shana) Hickey of Hinton, IA, her grandchildren Steve Cappel of Savannah, GA, Nick Wolff (special friend Diane) of Jackson, TN, Erin (Justin) Hurst of West Des Moines, IA, Leonard, jr aka Buddy (Brandy) Hickey of Stanton, IA, Angelina Cappel of Ft Collins, CO, Jessica (Dustin) Blair of Anderson, SC, Brian (Danea) Cappel of Denver, CO, Chris Hickey of Sioux City, IA, Liz (Ara) Bartemes of Fayetteville, NC and Jacob Hickey of Hinton, IA and 10 great grandchildren plus many loving family members and friends.
A Celebration of Life service is being planned for later.