Helen Joyce (Mitchell) Lybarger passed away Friday, April 4, 2025, at Lutheran Hospital in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.  She was 87 years, four months and ten days of age.  Visitation and family to receive friends will be held from 4:00 until 6:00 pm, Thursday, April 10, at Halouska Family Chaney-Reager Funeral Home.  A celebration of life will be held at 10:00 a.m., Friday, April 11, at the First Presbyterian Church in Sterling with Reverend Michelle Witherspoon officiating. Interment at Riverside Cemetery will follow the service, with a luncheon afterward at First Presbyterian Church.

Helen Joyce was born on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1937, to Howard and Amelia (Schumann) Mitchell at St. Benedict's Hospital in Sterling, Colorado. She attended school in Merino, Colorado until the third grade. The family then moved to Sterling where she attended Franklin Grade School and then Sterling Junior and Senior High Schools, graduating in 1955.  She started dating Larry Lybarger while carhopping at the Big B when a senior in high school.  They were united in marriage on February 18, 1955, at the Methodist Church in Sterling, and shared 67 years together, until Larry's death in 2022.

Joyce's first jobs were at the Fox Theatre and the Parquet and Big B drive-ins.  During her married life Joyce worked part-time, through the years, as a secretary for Mountain Bell, George Prast Insurance Agency and E.E. Sonnenberg and Sons.  She was a former bowler and golfer and volunteered at the Visitors Center for many years. She was a member of Busy Bees Homemaker Club and of Zion Congregational Church.

Her passions included gardening, reading, sewing, crafting and any genealogy involving Germans from Russia.  Joyce was a lifelong resident of Logan County, except for the last year, where she made her home at The Gardens on Quail, a retirement community in Arvada, Colorado.   There, through her uplifting and energetic personality, she made many friends with residents and staff.

She was preceded in death by husband Larry, parents Howard and Amelia (Schumann) Mitchell, brother Gerald "Mitch" Mitchell; brothers-in-law Tom Rose, Jerry Lybarger, Col. R.C. "Bob" Lybarger, Deacon Warren Lybarger, and Carter Lybarger.

Joyce is survived by daughter Jennifer Lynn (Stephen) Mitchell of Arvada and son Larry Mark (Kathy) Lybarger of Grand Junction, Colorado; three grandchildren, Sara (Dr. Nate) Lohmeyer, of Denver, Colorado, Robert (Heather) Lybarger of New York, New York and Collin (Amanda) Lybarger of Salem, Oregon; three great-grandchildren, Jack and Charlie Lohmeyer and Landon Lybarger; sister Geri (Mitchell) Rose, of Sterling, sisters-in-law Diane Mitchell of Alliance, NE, and Elaine (Lybarger) Giesler of Lake Havasu, AZ, and numerous nieces, nephews and extended family.

Memorial donations may be directed to the Logan County Humane Society or the Zion Congregational Church, in care of the Halouska Family Chaney-Reager Funeral Home, P.O. Box 1046, Sterling, CO 80751.