Joyce Hargens

Joyce B. Hargens, 84, of Miller, passed away Monday, September 5, 2022, at her home.

Funeral service will be 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, September 13, 2022, at Trinity Lutheran Church, Miller, with Rev. Rhonda Wellsandt-Zell officiating.  Burial will follow at Howell Cemetery, rural Miller.  Visitation will be 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., Monday, September 12, 2022, at Reck Funeral Home, Miller.

In lieu of flowers, the family request memorials.

Joyce Berdyne was born on July 3, 1938, to Clara (Horn) Neuharth and Herb Neuharth in Wolsey, South Dakota.  She grew up in the Wolsey area until she married Charles “Chuck” LeRoy Hargens on April 6, 1958, in Wolsey.  They moved to Miller and then had three children: Lorna, Jason, and Roger.  She enjoyed her role as a farm wife, raising her kids and taking care of the family.  The family enjoyed fishing and camping trips including the grandkids as they came along.  For many years, they had pheasant hunters at their home with her mom, Clara, and daughter, Lorna, helping cook and make pies.   It became a family “holiday” and tradition for many years. 

Once the kids got older, she took a job as a teacher’s assistant in several small country schools.  As the one room schools started merging with the schools in town, Joyce took a job at Tri-State Insulation as an office secretary for many years.  She then started her own cleaning business, “Ms. Clean” and you would see her special license plates, “MS CLEAN”, on her car as she made her rounds.  She loved the people she met at every job.  The family attended Orient church for many years, and she was active in Ladies Aide including being in several leadership positions, some were at the SD State level.

She was known and loved by many people in the community and kept in contact with many friends across the U.S.  She was great at sending cards to her friends and family.  She enjoyed putting in pages from her “Joke of Day” and cute kitty calendars which she saved for just that occasion.

After duty called at home, she and their son, Roger, tended to Chuck at their farm. There they spent many hours watching old westerns, Gun Smoke, and some of mom’s favorites, the Waltons, Little House on the Prairie, and Dancing with the Stars. They watched these many times, but mom always said they were better than the new TV shows.

Through the years, she enjoyed traveling with her daughter, Lorna, and couldn’t believe she got to go on cruises and travel so many places; grateful to have been able to travel when she could.  Joyce was always a flower lover, and it became a tradition every spring to plant with her daughter.  Every year there were new types of plants, and the new colors were as beautiful as she was.  It gave them something to talk about during the winter months on their nightly phone call discussing the next planting season.   She was so proud of her flowers and shared them with friends when she could.  Joyce also enjoyed saving and sharing seeds and had a variety of peonies, day lilies, hibiscus, black-eyed Susan’s, irises, tulips, daffodils, geraniums, phlox, sedum, petunias, and her favorites, begonias, in her garden.  These had become her favorite after her great granddaughters picked her out several plants one spring. 

Joyce was an avid reader and always enjoyed sharing books with daughter and her friends.  Each Christmas, the past few years, meant a new holiday novel for Christmas, which she really enjoyed.  The holidays started early with setting up the tree with fall decorations that transitioned to Christmas decorations, her newest addition was a lighted Bethlehem star on the top. 

She lived a full life and will be deeply missed by her family and friends. 

Her memory will be cherished by her husband, Chuck Hargens of Miller; children: Lorna (Ron) Kosola of Gillette, WY, Jason (Peggy) Hargens of Miller, and Roger Hargens of Miller; grandchildren and great grandchildren: Derrick (Mandy) McKown and children: Alivia and Kaylee; Brandon (Doni) McKown and children: Nathaniel, Oliver, Alexander, and Barrett; Clayton Slunecka and son, “Little” Ethan; Tigh Slunecka; Matthew Slunecka; and Ethan Hargens and son, Grayson; and many family members, and friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents.

Reck Funeral Home of Miller has been entrusted with Joyce's arrangements.