This is our video tribute to Mom debuted at her life celebration 24 September 2021.
Obituary
Ima Joyce Coe, 90, of North Platte, passed away peacefully at dawn September 10, 2021 at home surrounded by family. Joyce was born on March 14, 1931 in Hamlet, Nebraska. She was the eleventh child of Anna Clara Jäder and Samuel Clifford Ferguson, along with seven brothers and four sisters. Joyce and her sisters formed an inseparable supportive bond that lasted their entire lives. Raised in the Depression years, she remembers always working - at tasks of the home, baby sitting, at a movie theater or at a drug store soda fountain.
After graduating as valedictorian of the Palisade High School class of 1949, Joyce attended Kearney State Teachers College where she earned a teaching certificate. Her first teaching job was at the elementary school in Cambridge, Nebraska. Mutual friends introduced Joyce to Rich Todd, a young teacher and new coach at Indianola High School and they married in 1952. Children soon followed; Rick, Julie, Joni and Gregg. The Todd family lived in North Platte, Nebraska where Joyce created a safe, rambunctious, loving home at the fondly remembered house on Maple Street.
After divorce, Joyce pulled her life back together caring for others - her children, the kids of Roosevelt Elementary School as a teacher aide, and then as children's librarian at North Platte Public Library. For twenty-three years children delighted as Joyce welcomed them into the magic of reading and story telling. "I just love my job", she often shared. And the children whose curiosity she touched loved her. It was common for adults many years later to recognize the kindly librarian who read books to them when they were children.
Joyce married DeWayne Coe in 1977. They moved to Lake Maloney where they enjoyed fishing, boating, and Joyce's growing family of grand children. Following DeWayne's passing after thirty years of marriage, Joyce filled her life with family, church, dear friends, P.E.O, bridge clubs, casino trips to play the slots, and doing what she loved most - caring for others.
Joyce was a lover of learning. Her favorite advice was "No matter what, you'll always have your education". She loved reading and flower tending. She was a coveted bridge partner, a hot-handed dice roller and a quick wit. Most of all, Joyce was kind, compassionate, and caring. Her love flowed naturally and unconditionally to family, friends, and strangers. She fed, nurtured and cared for all fortunate to know her. For her children, grand children and great grand children she was the anchor and touchstone of the family. She will be so very, very missed, but with a heart void now filling with the love she gifted to the world.
Joyce was preceded in death by her parents, seven brothers and four sisters. Joyce is survived by her four children, Richard (Victoria) Todd, Julie Todd, Joni (Gonzalo) Gallegos, and Gregg (Florence) Todd; eight grandchildren, Gaylene Latham, Nathan Todd, Paul Todd, Ruthanna Autry, Isabella Gallegos, Liliana Gallegos, Lydia (Elizabeth) Gonzales, and Samuel Todd; great grand children Adam Latham and Austen Latham; and many nieces, nephews and cousins.
Visitation will be held from noon to 7:00 pm, Thursday, September 23, 2021, with family present from 4:00 to 7:00 pm, at Adams & Swanson Funeral Home of North Platte, Nebraska. Celebration of Joyce's life will be held 2:00 pm, Friday, September 24, 2021 at First United Methodist Church of North Platte with Rev. Doug Delp officiating.
Friends and family can make donations to the Goodfellow Shoe Fund of North Platte, Nebraska instead of flowers.
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