Joyce Schoenfelder

On Friday, June 19, 2020, Joyce Paulsen Schoenfelder, loving wife and mother of three children, passed away at the age of 94.

Joyce was born July 9, 1925 in Luverne, ND to Anna Christina and Andrew C. Paulsen. She was the next-to-last of ten children, and the last surviving member of her siblings. She grew up helping around the farm, working with her younger sister to deliver milk to local homes, and doing other chores. After high school she moved to Colorado where she worked for the Denver / Rio Grande railroad. In Denver, she met and married Ron Schoenfelder shortly after the end of World War II, and they started a family and built a life together. After their youngest child was born, Ron and Joyce moved the family to Albuquerque where they would live for almost 20 years before retiring in Green Valley, AZ.

Joyce loved working on the décor in the family home and she performed most of the remodeling and decorating tasks herself. She painted the rooms, refinished the furniture, and sewed the drapes all while raising the kids and keeping an immaculate home. She somehow also found the time to master many crafts such as sewing, knitting, crocheting, making shoes, and needlepoint. There was nothing she could not learn to do, and then do it like an expert. She was known by all to be a kind, loving, and caring wife, mother, grandmother and friend.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 65 years, Ron. Joyce is survived by her three children, Connie Schoenfelder of Albuquerque, Sandra Marsh and husband Larry of Show Low, AZ, and Robert Schoenfelder and wife Deonna of Albuquerque. She also was blessed with two grandchildren, Brian and Laura Schoenfelder of Albuquerque. Joyce was lovingly cared for in the last month of her life by her children, Sandi and Bob, and his wife Deonna.

They are eternally thankful for the expert support they received from the hospice and homecare workers that assisted during that period. Joyce will be placed to rest next to her beloved husband at the Santa Fe National Cemetery. There will be no funeral ceremony. If so desired, the family requests that friends and loved ones pay their respects with donations to the Alzheimer’s Association at www.alz.org.