Joyce Peterson Heiner

Angelic and otherworldly to all who knew her, Joyce Peterson Heiner passed away from this temporal world and into another, painfully beyond our reach, on June 5, 2026 in South Jordan, Utah.

Joyce would have preferred to stay a while longer but instead, like a butterfly transcending her chrysalis, departed this lesser world for a greater one beyond. She passed away in the eyes of her loved ones with more bravery, courage, grace, and elegance than anyone could imagine. Joyce will always continue to be a brilliant and radiant, if not iridescent, light of unmatched childlike innocence and purity.

Joyce did not seem of this world in many ways, and yet, being too good for it, never would have thought herself so. Joyce often claimed the bearing and rearing of her children to be her proudest achievement in life. The few beautiful bonds and relationships she shared, with those who were gifted enough to comprehend her, will remember her stoicism and fearlessness in facing her darkest of troubles with incessant charm, undying curiosity, and an ever-unexpected sense of humor. No matter how dark things got, she could always laugh along with those of us who failed to understand just how difficult her struggles were. She simply and powerfully pressed forward regardless of profound pain, discomfort, and disorientation.

Joyce was born April 10, 1952 at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City to her loving parents Mary Marsh Higginbotham and Elmo Joseph Peterson, growing up in Sugarhouse, Utah. As a child, Joyce excelled in her school work with straight As by the admission of her cherished sister Shauna who loved each other their whole lives and who fondly reminisced of swimming, skating, and mostly of their sweet mother Mary.

Joyce attended Pep Club, graduating from South High School, having earned her way by cleaning, ironing, answering phones, and later working at K-Mart, Dee’s, and Pike Manufacturing. She met Randall H. Gardner in art school at Utah State, later marrying for a time and bearing and together rearing three children: Heather, Christopher, and Jamie. Joyce would then meet and marry David Craig Hale, which led to the blessing of her fourth child, Ryan Matthew Hale. For a long season, Joyce remained single and tended to the nurture of her children while living in West Valley City, Utah. She did eventually re-marry, in the Salt Lake Temple, and spent her final 30 years of life with her dedicated husband Roger Allen Heiner.

In the wake of her two earlier dissolutions, Joyce considered first cosmetology school but was told by advisors she would not make enough money to provide for her family. Taking various evaluations, Joyce felt she then had to choose between either becoming a mortician or a nurse. Again, Joyce preferred even the cosmetological aspects of the mortuary arts, but as there were no such schools in the area, she again sacrificed her personal ambitions to enter nursing school, graduating Salt Lake Community College as an RN and ultimately retiring after a full and valiant nursing career. While lovingly providing for her children, Joyce caringly served many troubled souls both adolescents at Rivendell Psychiatric Hospital of Utah and adults at Discovery House methadone clinic. But her high ethical standards led her away from some unfortunate situations, when she ultimately landed her main profession at Salt Lake County, giving life-saving vaccinations. Everywhere, Joyce was the joy of so many—and specifically there at county where nary a prick was ever felt—for her delicate hand and empathic heart.

Uniquely intuitive, Joyce enjoyed many perspectives on health and wellness, often displaying an uncanny prescience for complexities others could never have foreseen but which turned out much later to be true—particularly with respect to health. Besides serious fatigue from her undying selflessness, she had enjoyed a long course of considerable health and fitness and even a bout of weight training with her husband, Roger, where she came to actually bench press 135 pounds or more. Also a talented artist—and in a romantic fashion other artists might understand—Joyce scarcely even grimaced when all of her college paintings simply disappeared mysteriously during her move from West Valley to South Jordan around 2010.

Always soft spoken and as gentle as a lamb, Joyce even eventually found herself emerging into new avenues in retirement, which was a time of self-discovery and late assertiveness. Yet ever graceful, she learned to wield a healthy stubbornness in her final years—balancing out the extreme agreeableness she’d manifested most of her life—communicating her increasingly, and very unique, thoughts and feelings. Her sometimes torturous experiences, being whether of this or another world, were understood but to other angels like her or anyone who would take the time and challenge or have the curiosity to understand.

Joyce always valued the input of anyone around her, bearing on the threshold of suggestibility. Hers was such a sociable nature that she could nearly become lost in others, always finding some way to feel as though she herself had also experienced with them any of all kinds of hardships. A highly charitable and thoughtful being, Joyce also served in many voluntary callings in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, including as relief society president, primary teacher, music director, and her favorite, primary chorister. Joyce sang beautifully as an alto many times at home, in church choirs, and in solos. She and Roger also absolutely loved their mutual calling as escorts at the LDS Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City for four years.

The accomplishments of this marvelous woman—loving mother, grandmother, spouse, and friend—are nothing short of miraculous. Only the realization that she was truly an angelic presence here could ever hope to explain the manner in which she lived her life humbly and yet, though she would never have thought so herself, amid a much lesser world. We are all vastly better for having known Joyce.

May she find a speedy reunion with her loved ones above and an eventual reunification with her loved ones still here below.

Joyce is survived by her sister Shauna, her husband Roger, and her children Heather, Christopher, Jamie, and Ryan as well as her in-laws and many grandchildren and great grandchildren as follows:

Heather (and Trevor) Mecham — Grandchildren: Nathan, Karli, Taylor, Halee, and Jax. Great-Grandchildren: Monroe, Sutton, Tyce, and Jrue.

Christopher (and Erin) Gardner — Grandchildren: Max and Gemma.

Jamie (and Christopher) Sullivan — Grandchildren: Tatum, Huxlee, and Owynn.

Ryan Hale (and Kristen Dea) — Grandchild: Van Valdez.

Her step children David (and Fawn) Heiner, Debbie (and Rusty) Mason, and Lisa Dawn Heiner.

Graveside services will be held Monday, June 8 at 11:00 a.m. at Larkin Sunset Lawn, 2350 E 1300 S, Salt Lake City, Utah. A visitation will be held prior to the graveside from 10:30-11:00 a.m. also at Larkin Sunset Lawn.

For guests unable to attend in person, a livestream of the graveside services can be accessed through the following link: Zoom Link