Joyce Louise (Nitz) Klein, age 65, of Atchison, KS, passed peacefully on May 3, 2024, at Mosaic Life Care in St. Joseph, MO.

A service to celebrate Joyce- life will be on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. at the Arensberg-Pruett Funeral Home with Rev. Jeremy Heppler, OSB, officiating. A visitation with the family will be for one hour prior to the service beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday. She will be laid to rest at Mt. Vernon Cemetery. Memorials may be left to the funeral home to assist with the arrangements.

Joyce was born on October 11, 1958, in Atchison, KS, the daughter of the late Harold Nitz and Corinne (Jones) Nitz. She attended Atchison public schools and graduated from Atchison High School.

Joyce was a caring, loving and social person and she used those qualities to pursue a career as a dietary aid at Senior Village Nursing Home for over thirty years until her retirement in 2021.

She married Pat Klein in Atchison, KS, on July 1, 1982, at the First Christian Church. They loved spending time together, dancing at the American Legion and their weekend dinner dates. Joyce enjoyed watching the Chiefs and the Royals, playing solitaire on the computer and flying across the country to different destinations to visit family and see new places. She will be remembered for her great cooking, especially her fried chicken and homemade pies. She loved people and when you saw her in public, you always knew that she would say hello and enjoy a conversation with you.

She is survived by her husband, Pat Klein; sisters, Kay (Gary) Baker of Lancaster, KS, Linda Parrott of Rushville, MO, Ann (Jerry) Lewman of Atchison, KS; a brother, Skip (Beverly) Nitz of Cummings, KS; brother-in-law, Mike (Kathy) Klein of Wichita, KS; and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents; brothers, John and Jeep Nitz; and a brother-in-law, Jim Parrott.