Joyce Carol Grimmett Duggar

Joyce Carol Grimmett Duggar passed away peacefully on Monday, May 17, 2021, in her home due to conditions incident to age. She wore out her life in the service of all that she knew and loved. She was able to bid farewell and bless all of her children and many of her grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and close friends in the days leading up to her passing.

Joyce entered the world on May 21, 1929. She was the first child born to Wayne and Erma Grimmett of Moreland, Idaho. When she was 4 years old, the family moved to Aberdeen where she spent her formative years with her 2 younger brothers and sister.

Following graduation from high school, she attended a semester of college at Idaho State University before serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Mexico Central America Mission, serving in Mexico and Guatemala. She learned to love the people and the Spanish language and retained that love throughout her life.

While working at BYU after her mission, she met and fell in love with Leonard Duggar. They were sealed together in the Idaho Falls Temple on June 26, 1953. They enjoyed raising their family in several areas around the US including; Idaho, California, Washington, and Florida. After their 6th child was born, Leonard and Joyce relocated to Utah and soon purchased their home on 1700 South in Bountiful. There they added two more children to their family. Joyce resided in that home for 59 years.

Joyce used her keen mind and her acumen for keeping meticulous financial records in her work for the Church, working 18 years in both the Finance and Missionary departments. Following Leonard’s passing in April of 1996, Joyce retired from work.

While attending a mission reunion, she was reacquainted with an Elder that she had known 50 years earlier, named Maurice Kaye Porter, who recently lost his wife to cancer. The two of them took up a long-distance email friendship, and eventually, this friendship grew into marriage. Kaye moved from California to live here with Joyce and he was a wonderful companion to her for 5 years until he too passed away. She also became very close to Kaye’s 9 children and their families and they were all so grateful for the way Joyce took care of their father in his declining health.

Her family was her life and she was so grateful when anyone would come to visit her or give her a call. She had a long list of people that she would send Christmas cards to each year and once it became too hard for her to send cards, she would make 2 phone calls a day throughout the Christmas season until she had reached out to all of her friends and caught up with them. She loved people and cared about the details of their lives.

Joyce loved music. She loved to play the piano and was a faithful ward choir member almost all of her life. All of her callings in the church were music-related and she loved them all. She passed on that love of music to many of her children and grandchildren.

It was said that she only failed in two subjects in school, one of which was Home Ec. Despite this fact, she learned that the only two essential ingredients to build a successful home were genuine love and Christlike patience. She excelled in both, earning an unqualified A+ in the estimation of her fortunate family.

The second subject she failed was P.E. but despite not being athletic in her own life, she somehow became an avid sports fan. She was a dyed in the wool BYU fan and followed every sport that BYU played. She also loved the Utah Jazz and followed them closely for many years.

Joyce also provided a wonderful example of caring for her own health throughout her life. After watching Leonard’s health decline, she decided to take a proactive approach to her own health. She enjoyed getting involved in senior yoga and even got interested in learning Taekwondo, earning her brown belt on her 70th birthday. Once she knew that she was getting closer to the end of her life and it was time to have hospice care, it was difficult for her to transition from trying to live forever to just trying to die peacefully.

Joyce was a true friend. She tried to keep in touch with everyone and always wanted to know what was going on in the lives of those she loved. She regularly wrote letters and phoned her friends, never forgetting someone on their birthday. She even got to the point where she would call people the day before their birthday just so she wouldn’t get caught up in something on their actual birthday and forget to call them.

She learned early in life that unconditional love was the most powerful force for good in the entire universe and she worked for 92 years to perfect the art of love. She rarely spoke an unkind word about another person and was an example of longsuffering and forgiveness.

Joyce is preceded in death by her parents, Wayne and Erma Grimmett, a brother Gary Grimmett, her husbands Leonard Duggar and Kaye Porter, and a son-in-law Greg Hope.

She is survived by her brother Clive (Shirley) Grimmett, a sister Necia (Tom) Johnson, a sister-in-law Jesse Grimmett, a brother-in-law Tom (Mona) Duggar, her children David (Cherie) Duggar, Michael (Shelly) Duggar, Carol (Tom) Alberts, Vicki (Kent) Griffeth, Ron (Janet) Duggar, Denise (John) Putnam, Jolene Hope, and Jerald (Tammie) Duggar, her 31 grandchildren, and 46 great-grandchildren. All together she leaves an amazing posterity numbering 117 family members whose lives she impacted through her love and devotion.

Masks will not be required but are recommended in accordance with your personal health risks for COVID-19.

Services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, May 22, 2021 at the Bountiful 25th Ward Chapel, 600 East 1500 South, where a viewing will be held from 9:45-10:45 a.m. prior to services.

A viewing will also be held Friday evening from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. at Russon Bountiful Mortuary, 295 N. Main Street.  Interment – Bountiful City Cemetery.

Services will be live streamed on Russon Mortuary and Crematory Facebook page and this obituary page.