Sister Joyce Zarnik, OSF, age 81, passed away November 15, 2022, at The Alverno in Clinton, IA. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 19, at The Canticle, 841 13th Ave N in Clinton, with Bishop Daniel Turley, O.S.A., presiding. Visitation will be from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. Friday, November 18 at The Canticle, where a rosary will be recited at 4:00 p.m. and a wake service begins at 6:30 p.m. Burial will be in St. Irenaeus Calvary Cemetery. Pape Funeral Home is assisting. It is requested that those attending any service be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, including the latest booster.

Joyce Beverly was born on July 22, 1941, in Chicago, IL, the eldest child of Joseph and Josephine (Battaglia) Zarnik. She was baptized Joyce Anne at St. Benedict Church in Chicago on September 14, 1941. She had four sisters, Geraldine, Gloria, Paulette, and Christine. She attended Immaculate Heart of Mary and St. Clare of Montefalco elementary schools and Gage Park High School in Chicago, graduating in 1959. She received an A.A. degree from Mount St. Clare College, Clinton, in 1963. Joyce entered the Sisters of St. Francis at Mount St. Clare Convent, Clinton, on September 8, 1963, and received the name Sister Mary Labouré at her reception on June 13, 1964. She later resumed her baptismal name. She made her first profession on August 12, 1966, and her final profession on June 5, 1975.

Sister Joyce received a B.A. in Education from Marycrest College, Davenport, IA, and an M.A. in Education with an emphasis on media from the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA. She held a permanent professional teaching certificate in Iowa as well as a catechetical certificate and a certificate in MS DOS computers from California State University, San Bernardino, CA. She served 40 years in the ministry of teaching at schools in Epworth, Clinton, and Fonda, IA; Macomb and Chicago, IL; and Riverside, CA. She served as an Administrative Assistant in the Mission Development Office of the Medical Missionaries of Mary in Chicago, where she ministered from 2006 until her retirement in 2021.

Sister Joyce’s talent in both voice and guitar enriched many liturgical services with the Sisters of St. Francis and the schools where she served. She was a member of the “Singing Sisters” who recorded the album Come Along in 1972. More recently, she was a member of “Circle of Song for Women,” a non-auditioned chorus in the Chicago area that uses their voices to send healing, compassion, and joy into our world.
Sister Joyce had a gift for accepting people where they are and in seeing the interconnectedness of all.

She is survived by her sisters, Geraldine (Richard) Jakl, Paulette Heredia, and Christine (Glenn) Wagner; many nieces and nephews; and her Clinton Franciscan Family with whom she has shared life for 59 years.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Joseph and Josephine, and sister, Gloria.