Funeral services for Joyce Stallard Bruce will be held Saturday, July 22, 2017, at 10:30 AM at the chapel of Temple Baptist Church under the direction of Kilpatrick Funeral Home of Ruston. Interment will follow at Pines Memorial Cemetery. Visitation will be on Saturday prior to the service, from 10:00 10:30 AM at the Temple Baptist Church chapel. Online condolences may be made to the family at www.kilpatrickfuneralhomes.com .Joyce was born in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Bluefield, West Virginia, to newspaperman Robert Stallard of Williamson, West Virginia, and his wife Rachel Ratliff Stallard of Floyd, Virginia. She arrived at 2 AM on a silver Thursday June morning in 1933, as her father literally set type for the evening edition of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph.As an only child, she was her parents joy and devotion. Her daddy called her Stuff and her mother called her Doll. As an only child she relished the company of her many cousins, aunts, and uncles.It seems she was born to make music with delicate fingers and sensitive ears that mastered woodwinds in high school, then piano in college. There she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from her beloved Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia.She wasted no time after college, marrying her high school sweetheart Arthur Bruce, eventually giving him three children, Kimberley, Jonn, and Catherine. Arthur and Joyce moved their young family to Ruston in the late 1960, where Arthur began a teaching career as a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Louisiana Polytechnic Institute, later renamed Louisiana Tech University.Joyce established her family into their new community, becoming a long-time member of the Ruston Church of God, and earning her own reputation as one of Ruston successful private piano teachers. Her family came first, but she derived great pleasure teaching the boys and girls of Lincoln Parish the art and magic of playing the piano.After a long illness, Joyce passed into the presence of her Savior at noon on June 17, 2017. She was attended by her family as she left this world. Joyce faith in her Lord provides her family with the certainty that we are saying goodbye for only a short time. We already anticipate the glorious reunion to come.Joyce is preceded in death by her parents, Robert and Rachel Stallard and her husband of 44 years, Dr. Arthur C. Bruce. Joyce is survived by her daughter Kimberley Bruce Kleinpeter, and husband Gary Kleinpeter, of Ruston; son Jonn Bruce and wife Ranee Martin Bruce of Winchester, Kentucky; and daughter Catherine Bruce Pearson of West Monroe, and husband Frank Pearson. She was especially proud of her three grandchildren: Grant and Rachel Kleinpeter, both of Ruston, and Ben Bruce of Nashville, Tennessee.