Loretta Nora Joyce

Loretta Joyce, age 77, died of heart failure in California on 11/4/25. She was born on 6/19/48 and was adopted into a difficult childhood. She grew up as the baby sister of her beloved siblings Mike, Mary, and Joe and their loving mom, Hilda.

Throughout her life she was fun, mischievous, insanely talented, and twice as hard working. She couldn't leave the house without talking to everyone she passed. Her Joie d vivre sparkled from across a room, she was gorgeous inside and out, she was the life of the party, and she threw a damn good one. Loretta was whip smart and spicy at times. She would beat you at any game and wasn't above a little cheating at Yahtzee if it meant having a good time.

She very rarely sat still, at least not once she got her morning coffee. She loved learning, theater, art, nature, and music as an artist she created beautiful things, she could and did fix and build everything. She was a gifted ceramicist, painter, woodworker, builder, stained glass artist, seamstress, she baked and even opened a cookie shop. She wired her house for electricity, and it passed on first inspection.

As a young adult she married the first of a few husbands, became a mom and a stepmom. She loved being a parent and worked many jobs to provide for her family, usually as a single mom. She relished her freedom and gladly worked extra hard to enjoy her independence, never becoming bitter about life’s disappointments.

She lived her values, teaching her kids to be grateful for our many opportunities, as she was. She had a scholarship in art to attend college but couldn't make it work. Instead, she worked as a meter maid in San Jose, CA to give her kids the tools to enjoy life and take care of themselves. Loretta made sure her kids grew up surrounded by diversity and modeled hard work, critical thinking, tenacity, and treating others kindly. She was an advocate for human rights, a lifelong ally to LGBTQ+ folks, and a prolific blood donor. Her generosity ran deep, and she brought home people who needed help and animals that needed homes.

In midlife she took great joy in finding her biological siblings and niblings. She found a profound sense of belonging and connection with them and they had many fantastic adventures together. They really showed up for her and with her, right up to the end.

When her kids were grown, she moved to Maui where she renovated a house on the ocean with her own hands, scuba dived nonstop, and howled at the full moon over a bonfire on many a night with her friends.

After Maui she moved to Portland, OR and enjoyed many years of living near her beloved niblings, the Estebans. She loved fixing up her beautiful old house, many trips to Rebuilders, volunteering at the local theater, and partying with her Overlook neighbors.

Loretta was an adventurer and she went everywhere: Russia, Africa, Asia, South America, Europe, Indonesia, Oceana, and everywhere else. She usually stayed in hostels and often flew stand by because she did it all on a retired meter maid salary. She brought family and friends camping on the beaches of Mexico, hiking through the crater of Haleakala, all over the US and points beyond. She loved to relax with a glass of wine and a cigarette in front of the fire, often at her beloved little cabin in the Sierras.

As her beloved independence became harder to maintain in the last few years of her life, she moved to the sunny beaches of Southern California. With her daughter nearby, she enjoyed the smell of the ocean and flirting with surfers and making others around her laugh.

She is survived by many who loved and were inspired by her, including her daughters Stephanie (Joel) of CA, Jennifer (John) of WI, and her lifelong best friend, Holly Little. She populated her life with multitudes of friends, chosen family, adopted family, family of origin, and pets. Her greatest joy in life was to make you laugh. She died too soon, but she lived a big, loud, adventurous, and generous life on her own terms. Loretta was not religious, she arranged to be cremated and have her remains spread in her beloved ocean and mountains. In lieu of flowers, donations to Doctors without Borders would honor her memory