Joyce Coons, 92, of Cleveland, Missouri, passed away peacefully on Sunday, May 3, 2026. She was born June 2, 1933, in Newton, Iowa to Charles and Leota (Loveless) Schermerhorn and grew up during the Great Depression in Kansas City, Missouri with four brothers and five sisters. Joyce was the second youngest and the first baby in her family to benefit from a regular supply of milk from the cow her father brought home from a card game. She spent much of her youth helping and supporting her family, and was protected throughout her childhood by her formidable brothers. Along with her younger sister, Joyce’s early school years were disrupted while they lived with their eldest brother, traveling around Wyoming and other parts of the country. Despite these difficulties, she remained devoted to her parents, siblings, and childhood friends throughout her long life.

Joyce’s adult life was forged in her teens and twenties. In her late teens, she managed the concession stand at the Paramount Theatre on Main Street where she developed a life-long love for chocolate malts. She would later teach her children how to make this wickedly delicious confection and frequently request them in her ailing days. She suffered deeply in these years with the loss of her brother Jack when she was just 16 and her father two years later. Joyce also met and married her first two husbands in these early days; first marrying Bob Knight in 1951 and then Don Pierce in 1952, giving birth to three beautiful children Patti, Don and Joy. Joyce met and married the love of her life, Jim Coons, in 1957. Together they added three more children (Lonnie, Bobbi, and Jim) and raised a strong and loving family. Their first-born Lonnie died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome at less than two months of age, creating a deep wound that she carried throughout her life. They also looked after and helped raise a considerable number of their grandchildren.

Joyce and Jim nurtured close, loving relationships with their children, family and friends, which was all driven by Joyce’s magnanimous devotion to family. Joyce had a keen sense of her children’s needs with daily cooked meals always served at the dinner table. Childhood worries were often resolved before being expressed, such as a time when she adorned her daughter’s bedroom just in time for a new friend’s stayover, and seeing that her children had regular visits with a dentist, an experience completely absent from her own childhood. She wanted her children to smile confidently. Joyce had a determined, and often humorous side. After picking up her eldest daughter from a play date, she discovered her new car’s automatic transmission was stuck. Rather than calling for help, she made the 2-mile trek home in reverse, driving down less-traveled back roads. She was a persistent source of love to all of her nieces and nephews, but in particular the children of her sister Jeannie and brother-in-law Gene Hale who had treated her like their own daughter. There were many trips to the Hale home which was located north of the Missouri River and before I-435 was constructed required battling the traffic of a hectic downtown Kansas City. Nothing prevented these visits; not the civil riots of the late 60’s, her flaring agoraphobia, or a desperate traverse on the back of her nephew Kirk’s motorcycle. Time spent with the Hales was a salve whatever the angst. Joyce deeply loved her children and all of her nieces and nephews.

Joyce and Jim were the owners of Coons Tree Service, which at one time was the only tree service in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Joyce managed the home office while looking after her family and growing what became widely regarded as the best tree service in the region. At times throughout her life, Joyce expressed an independent spirit and tried other jobs like stocking greeting cards at regional stores or working at a neighborhood senior citizens home. Joyce and Jim shared 68 years of marriage raising 5 children,18 grandchildren, 42 great-grandchildren, and 7 great-great-grandchildren. Joyce knew the blessing of Jesus Christ’s love, and raised her children in the Lutheran Church attending services throughout her life.

Those left to cherish Joyce’s memory are her daughters Patti (Dennis) Joyce, Joy (Ben) Hinds, and Bobbi (Rick) Lowery; son Jim (Liz) Coons; sister Helen Rankle; sisters-in-law Tanya and Terra Coons; and many grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces and nephews that often treated her as a second mother. She was the bedrock of love as a mother, aunt, cousin, and friend to so many. In addition to her parents, Joyce is preceded in death by her husband Jim who passed in January of this year, sons Don Melton Pierce and Lonnie Duane Coons; grandsons Donnie Pierce, Lonnie Pierce, and Kevin Joyce; and by 8 of her.

A joint memorial service honoring and celebrating Joyce and Jim will be held Friday, September 11, 2026 at 1 PM, with a gathering of family and friends to begin at 12 pm.