Joyce Lavera Ude

Joyce LaVera Ude was born June 6, 1938, in Hebron, Nebraska, to Milford and Mildred (Dorman) Pitts. She passed away on November 19, 2021, at Gardenside Nursing Home in Fairbury, Nebraska, after succumbing to complications from dementia at the age of 83. Joyce was the oldest of six children and helped raise them on the family farm outside Hebron, where her least favorite chore was caring for the chickens and she was scolded once for riding a cow. Upon leaving home, she became a nurse's aide at hospitals in Fairmont, Hebron, and Fairbury. One memory she passed on from her work was her surprise at discovering Mickey Mouse tattooed on a patient’s backside.

Joyce was united in marriage to Roger Ude on June 12, 1966, at the Christian Church in Hebron. The two made a home in Fairbury, raising three outstanding daughters, Crystal, Rita, and Holly. She often cajoled Roger into dancing to her favorite song, “May I Have This Dance,” by Anne Murray. The two loved traveling to Husker football games on the bus with friends, visiting family, trips to Las Vegas, and even more bus trips to exotic locales like Mackinac Island and the Great Smoky Mountains. Joyce became a teacher at the Preschool Learning Center in 1976. It was there that she taught many generations of children the alphabet, colors and shapes, and how to tie their shoes. In fact, even after her retirement in May 2002, families often brought their children over to her house for shoe-tying lessons.

Joyce enjoyed cleaning. Many family friends recall how spotless the house always was, even joking they could eat off the floor. The fivesecond rule didn’t exist in that house. You could eat off the floor anytime. She cleaned it from top to bottom each year, even perching in precarious positions on a ladder to wash windows on the second floor of that great big house on F Street. Heaven will never have been so clean. When she wasn’t cleaning or traveling, she was often found baking, especially banana, zucchini, and pumpkin bread. She loved sharing her baked goods with postal workers, neighbors, and sometimes her daughters, but always her grandkids. In younger years, she played golf, once even winning a tournament at the Fairbury Country Club. Joyce swooned over Gene Autry, John Wayne, and Burt Reynolds. Watching old Westerns was a favorite pastime. She also enjoyed watching baseball, especially the K.C. Royals, and Husker football.

One of her greatest joys was watching her grandchildren grow up and attending their activities. She always made Rice Krispie Treats for her granddaughter Shaye’s swim meets and attended flag football and little league games to cheer on her grandsons Cooper and Emmett. She attended every event she could until her health prevented her from doing so. She spent hours playing “kitchen” and “horses,” doing various art projects, and playing games with her grandchildren. She will be remembered as a great daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, and connoisseur of “nice sweatshirts.”

Joyce is preceded in death by her parents, her husband, her brother Jay Pitts, her mother-in-law Clara Ude, her sister- and brother-in-law Winona and DeVere Gerwick, and her brothers-in-law Lee Gottula and Mike Lichty. She is survived by her daughters and sons-in-law Crystal and Alan Stall, of Rogers, Arkansas; Rita and Dan Kellen of Omaha, Nebraska; and Holly and Michael Tracy of Lincoln, Nebraska; grandchildren Shaye Stall of Orlando, Florida; and Cooper Tracy and Emmett Tracy of Lincoln; step-grandchildren Sydney Kellen and Nathan Kellen of Omaha; sister-in-law Beverly Pitts of Hebron; brother and sister-in-law Lyle and Beverly Pitts of Deshler, Nebraska; sister Lila Gottula of Auburn, Nebraska; sister and brother-in-law Carla and Barry Griggs of North Palm Beach, Florida; sister Carol Lichty of Kirk, Colorado; and numerous nieces and nephews.

The funeral service will be held at Grace Lutheran Church in Fairbury on Wednesday, November 24, at 11 a.m. Memorials will go to Grace Lutheran Church.  Burial will take place at the Grace Lutheran Cemetery near Gladstone, Nebraska. Public viewing is Tuesday, November 23, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the funeral home.  Gerdes-Meyer Funeral Home is assisting with arrangements.