Joyce Arlene Dewell passed away peacefully surrounded by family on March 31, 2024 in Winfield. She was 91 years old. Joyce was born in Bucklin, on June 28, 1932 to James Ernest (J.E.) and Mayme Melvina Birney (Frazier). She was the youngest of three children. Joyce grew up in western Kansas and graduated from Bucklin High School in 1950. During high school, she played tenor saxophone in the band, did track (hurdles and pole vaulting), and was a drum majorette. She attended Emporia State University and was a member of Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority. Later, while she was living with her sister Wynona and brotherin- law Harold McCarty in New York, she received a marriage proposal from Hal in a letter, while he was enlisted in the Air Force and serving in England.
She and Hal were married in Fairford, England in 1953 (the year Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth) and lived in Cirencester (Glouchester County). After Hal’s service, they lived for a short time in Bucklin, where their son Scott was born in 1954. She and Hal moved to Emporia, where Hal completed his degree at Emporia.
