Joyce Maxine Heinrich

Joyce Brock Heinrich May 1, 1939 - November 22 , 2025 Joyce Maxine Brock was born in Chicago to Lucille (Whitworth) and William Brock on May 1, 1939, the fourth child of what would eventually be seven. The family moved to Bensonville, where Joyce attended Fenton High, graduating in spring 1957. She studied education at Wheaton College, where her older sisters had also attended. Halfway through college, she married her high school sweetheart, Robert Heinrich, on August 29, 1959. The two of them finished college as married students, Joyce completing a degree in elementary education (Wheaton, 1961) and Bob a degree in political science. Bob's career kept their family on the move over the years, and the family lived in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, California, and Florida. As a kindergarten student, Joyce saw a teacher ridicule another student, and she decided then that she would someday be a teacher who loved her students and taught them with kindness. Joyce fulfilled that childhood dream, nurturing all the children who came into her life-her own six children, several foster children, classrooms filled with preschooler or elementary school students, and later the infants and preschoolers of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. Joyce's classrooms were joy-filled places, and she exercised a special insight into the problems and feelings of children. She had a deep longing to introduce children to life in Christ. More than anything else, Joyce was a devoted follower of Jesus. Her life was shaped by her longing to serve God and to please him. She poured out her energy, and her gifts of teaching, hospitality, and nurture as she loved God by loving the people God brought into her life. She loved to teach, both children and adults, truth from God's Word. In the late 1980s, she published a parenting book. In 2001 Joyce was preceded in death by her husband of 42 years. Though she will be remembered with great joy, Joyce will be sorely missed by her three remaining siblings, Marilyn Bruder, Adele Brock, and Bill Brock; by her children, Marc (Becky) Heinrich, Annette (David) LaPlaca, Dawn (Monika) Ahlquist, Adele (Richard) Frieder, Brock (Mary) Heinrich, and Angie (Brian) Mol; her sixteen grandchildren, Holly, Connor, Julia (Philip), Robert (Rebekah), Lucy, David, Rein, Trudi, Emily (Kevin), Elise (Tony), Catie, Alisha (Kole), Grace, Will, Sam, and Silas; and her four great-grandchildren Eleanor, Quinnlynn, Gabriel, and Lyra. A funeral service will be held Sunday, November 30, at 3 p.m. at Valley View Baptist Church, 1980 10th Ave. W., Shakopee, Minnesota, with refreshments to follow the service. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be given to Youth Investment Foundation, 1364 Hamel Rd, Hamel, MN 55340 (www.timberbay.org).

Tributes

Joyce Maxine Heinrich

May 1, 1939 - November 22, 2025

Tributes

Joyce Maxine Heinrich

May 1, 1939 - November 22, 2025

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