Joyce F. Fasnacht (89) of Urbana, formerly of Newton

Joyce F. Fasnacht, age 89, of Urbana, Illinois, and formerly of Newton, Illinois, passed away on Thursday, March 4, 2021, at her home.

Services celebrating Joyce's life will be held at 11:00 AM Friday, June 4, 2021, at the Meyer Funeral Home in Newton, Illinois, with Ron Mulvey officiating. Burial will be in the Brick Cemetery north west of Newton, Illinois, across the road from the Fasnacht family farm. Visitation will be held 1 hour before the service.

Joyce was born July 27, 1931, near Newton, Illinois, the daughter of J. Frank and Goldie Eveland Fasnacht, who preceded her in death.

She is survived by her sisters, Margaret Buel (Kenneth) of Savoy, Illinois, and Joan Redenbaugh of Raleigh, North Carolina; and six nephews and nieces, Robert Buel (Nancy) of Montgomery, Illinois, Joan Tompkins (Robert) of Antioch, Tennessee, Allan Buel of LaPorte, Indiana, Kathleen Miller (Paul) of McKinney, Texas, Pamela Head (Joseph) of Bloomington, Illinois and Crystal Hoelzle (Todd) of Wake Forest, North Carolina, and their families.

Joyce attended Illinois State University and Eastern Illinois University and worked for her uncle, Don Ward, before transferring to the University of Illinois in the 1950s. There she worked for Professor Neil Garvey and in the Educational Psychology Department, where she was asked by two professors to accompany them to Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, in the 1960s.

After two years, Joyce missed midwestern weather and came back to work in the University Digital Computer Lab during the Vietnam era of student riots in opposition to U.S. Defense Department contracts. Joyce was privileged to work briefly for the eminent Dr. Carl Woese. Her final decades of employment, well into her 70s, were in the university’s USDA area of soybean research.

During the decades before social media, Joyce was her scattered family’s main source of news of the university administration and its sports and music events, as she faithfully sent out clippings and tapes of successes and scandals. All her life she remained an accurate source of UI sports history, including all the minor and women’s teams. Her younger relatives in the Marching Illini could depend (even when their parents couldn’t attend every game) that Joyce would be at the Armory every game day to march down Fourth Street to Memorial Stadium with them.

Joyce belonged to several genealogical societies and was a precise researcher and preserver of family records.

Joyce was a loyal almost daily MDT rider on trips to scattered shopping areas and to Willard Airport. She sometimes said she should caution any favorite restaurant that her patronage had been bad luck for such as Mel’s Diner in Urbana, IHOP on Green Street, Taffie’s on Mattis and Merry-Ann’s in downtown Champaign.

Memorials are welcome to the donor’s choice. Joyce’s family is grateful for the selfless person she was.