Joyce Elizabeth (Essary) Pettit died on March 11, 2026, at the age of 90. She was born in 1935 to Marshie (Pierce) and Edgar Essary in Taney County, Missouri. The Essary family settled in the Yakima Valley in the 1950s. Joyce attended Sunnyside High School and business college in Yakima. She married A. George Pettit in 1955. They raised three sons in Sunnyside. Besides being a homemaker, Joyce also worked at various times as secretary/bookkeeper, real estate agent, and state office administrator.

She was preceded in death by her husband George, her parents, and six siblings. She is survived by her children Clayton (Janice), Andrew (Lisa), and Joseph (Andrew Fink); her grandchildren Cody Myers, Grayson and Anna Pettit, and Meg and David Ronan; her sisters Elaine and Patsy, and her brother Donald, as well as many nieces and nephews.