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Photo of Joyce (Helm) Tovar

Joyce (Helm) Tovar

6/21/1941 - 6/1/2015


Obituary


Joyce LaVonne (Helm) Tovar, 73, of Crystal Lake, passed away Monday, June 1, 2015, at Mercy Medical Center – North Iowa in Mason City.

Funeral Services for Joyce Tovar will be held at 10:30 AM on Saturday, June 6, 2015, at the United Methodist Church, 215 Summit Avenue in Crystal Lake with Reverend Robert Snitzer officiating.  Burial will follow at Crystal Township Cemetery in Crystal Lake. 

Visitation will be held from 5:00 – 7:00 PM on Friday, June 5, 2015, at Ewing Funeral Chapel, 178 Center Street West in Britt and will continue one hour prior to services at the church.

Joyce, the daughter of George and Burnette (Jacobson) Helm was born June 12, 1941, in Crystal Lake, Iowa. She attended the Crystal Lake Consolidated School, graduating in 1958. Joyce worked for Winnebago and retired after 23 years. On September 18, 1999, she was united in marriage with Frankie Tovar at the Little Brown Church in Nashua.   Together they enjoyed going to the Rock and Roll Reunion at the state fair.

Joyce was very involved in sports for many years and was very proud of being scorekeeper at WCL and WCLT for 53 years.  She was also very involved in watching her nephews, nieces, great nieces and great nephews’ activities.  Three highlights of her life were when WCLT Girls Basketball went to state, where she was scorekeeper; when her nephew, Paul, took his girls’ basketball team to state and when her great nephew, Connor, played in the state basketball tournament.

Joyce was a member of the Calvary Lutheran Church in Crystal Lake.  She was an avid Iowa Hawkeye fan and collector of Star Wars memorabilia.  Joyce loved watching sports on TV and spending time with her best buddy, Frankie, a cat she adopted from the humane society who also had the same name as her late husband.

Joyce is survived by three brothers, Virgil (Jean) Helm of Crystal Lake, Russell (Marilyn) Helm of Crystal Lake and Merlyn Helm of Clear Lake; one sister, Lois Sonius of Crystal Lake, numerous nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband Frankie in 2011; mother, Burnette in 1992; father, George in 1974, and brother, Harlan in 1982.