Joyce M. Beier Muder

Joyce M. (Beier) Muder

September 1, 1961 - April 8, 2026

Joyce Muder was the cherished youngest child of Thomas J. and Mildred E. (Reding) Beier. She spent her early years in Seattle, Washington, moving to Kansas City in 1966, when her family returned to its Kansas roots.

In Kansas City, Joyce attended St. Peter’s Cathedral elementary school and graduated from Bishop Ward High School in 1979. While at Ward, she had a chance to use her beautiful singing voice as a member of the Lightside select vocal ensemble and as a soloist in the school’s annual variety show. She also volunteered for many years as a guitarist and singer for contemporary REACH religious services.

Joyce attended Washburn University, where she was a member of a sorority and made many more fast and dearly fond friends.

In 1984, Joyce married Matthew Muder, and, in 1985, the young couple greeted their only child, Rebecca. Although the marriage ended and Joyce and Matt went their separate ways, their devotion to Rebecca, now a brilliant and empathetic bereavement therapist, never wavered or diminished in the slightest. She has made them and continues to make her extended Muder and Beier family unspeakably proud. Joyce always knew that Rebecca’s birth after a difficult pregnancy was indisputably her most lasting contribution to the betterment of the world.

Frequent and serious physical and mental health challenges often made Joyce’s life turbulent and caused suffering for her and those who loved her. Yet her capacity to rally and return to her ornery self became legend. She was able to surmount many difficulties that would have flattened others permanently, and she consistently maintained her affection for harmless mischief and joy until the very end of her life. Hysterical stories of her pranks and high voltage personality and relentless determination abound. In particular, her care providers at the Eskridge Care and Rehabilitation nursing home, where Joyce lived for nearly two decades, can entertain a listener for hours. Joyce has left a legacy of raucous and bawdy laughter as well as heartfelt tears.

Joyce was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by her daughter, Rebecca Muder of St. Louis, Missouri; her brother, Richard J. Beier, and his wife, Carol A. Beier, of Green Valley, Arizona; and her sister, Carol A. Beier, and her husband, Richard W. Green, of Topeka. Plans for a memorial gathering in the early Fall are being developed along with a small family-only interment of Joyce’s ashes with her parents’ remains in Kansas City.

Joyce M. (Beier) Muder left this world as we all hope to -- loved unconditionally.