May 10, 1927 ~ Jan. 12, 2021
Joyce Helen Staton Gronning, age 93, passed away January 12, 2021 in Delta, Utah.
Joyce was born May 10, 1927 in Pocatello, Idaho to Alta Clorece Cobia and Eugene Matthew Staton, the third of six children. After the family moved several times in California they moved to Las Vegas where, at age 19, Joyce was swept off her feet at a church dance by tall, dark and handsome Ralph Gronning, newly returned from fighting in WWII. They married May 28 1946, later solemnized in the Logan Temple on March 17 1961. Ralph graduated from the Mackey School of Mines as a Mining Engineer, so his career choice moved them around the west often, and to many out-of-the-way areas.
Joyce's talents were many and varied. She enjoyed knitting, crocheting, sewing, serving in PTA and Girl Scouts, and playing her accordion and singing with Ralph while he played his banjo. Joyce loved playing and teaching accordion, piano, and organ. Perhaps Joyce's greatest joy came from her art. She loved working in her art studio and created many, many beautiful paintings, and taught art lessons to many young people.
Joyce loved researching her North and South Carolina roots and compiled a mountain of genealogy. She was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, loved serving in many church callings and had deep love of her Savior.
In the late 1960's she and Ralph took up golf, and golfed together almost daily for many years. She especially loved Battle Mountain, Nevada, where they lived the last decades of their lives until Joyce's eyesight failed and David Corey, her brother-in-law, took the mostly-blind artist-widow under his wing and brought her to the Diamond D assisted living center in Delta, Utah where she spent her last four-plus years under their wonderful care.
Joyce and Ralph were not blessed with any children of their own, but they cared in their home for Joyce's down-syndrome-sister, Bobbie for over twenty years. Joyce's parents and siblings, Ralph Eugene Staton, Donald Henry Staton, Sherman Kenneth Staton, Dan Mathew Staton, and Barbara Clorece Staton, as well as her husband, Ralph Leland Gronning, all preceded her in death. She is survived by one brother-in-law, David L Corey (Karrol) as well as many nieces and nephews.
We will miss her laugh, her sharp mind, hearing her stories and telling her ours. We hope her incredibly full life will be remembered by all who knew and loved her. A graveside service will be held at noon Monday, January 18, 2021 in Battle Mountain, Nevada where she will be buried next to her husband, Ralph.
