Joyce Steen

Joyce Steen passed away peacefully on April 29, 2022, in her home in Norman, Oklahoma, at the age of 95 years. She was attended to in her final hours by her beloved grandchildren, Katie Friddle and Conner McLaughlin, who grew up adoring her as their “Grandmother.” Joyce was born Beatrice Joyce Kilburne on September 18, 1926, in Riverhead, Long Island, New York, to George and Beatrice Kilburne. Joyce was an only child who spent her early years growing up in Riverhead and Greenport, Long Island, where she spent many years living in the house her maternal grandfather built.

During World War II, Joyce enrolled in the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps and subsequently graduated from the Greenwich Hospital School of Nursing in Connecticut. Joyce worked as a nurse in Greenwich and later on Long Island. She met her future husband, David Steen, in Riverhead while he was in military training for the Army Air Corps before being assigned to the Pacific Theater. After the war, in 1948, they were married in Riverhead, Long Island and then moved to David’s hometown, Norman, Oklahoma, where he returned to college at OU and Joyce continued her extended career in nursing at what was then Norman Municipal Hospital for the next 35 years.

Joyce was a dedicated nurse who loved and lived her profession to the end. She was beloved and respected by her colleagues for her professionalism. In 1971, Joyce was selected as statewide Nurse of the Year by the Oklahoma State Nursing Association. In her 35 years of service, she touched the lives of countless families. She developed her position as Patient Coordinator in 1968 at Norman Regional Health System, which focused on transition planning and palliative care for patients. In 2014, through the Norman Regional Health Foundation, a scholarship program for palliative care training for nurses was established in Joyce’s name.

Joyce was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, David, and her son, Wilson. She is survived by her daughter Kathy and her husband, Scott McLaughlin, her granddaughter, Katie Friddle and her husband, Shane, and her grandson, Conner McLaughlin and his wife, Michelle. Joyce’s four great-grandchildren, Eleanor and Jack Friddle, and Scarlett and Georgia McLaughlin, were the crowning joys of her life.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Joyce Steen Fund scholarship at the Norman Regional Health Foundation to support practicing nurses’ continued training in palliative care. When establishing the fund, Joyce’s daughter, Kathy, said, “Her caring heart made her who she is and who we are as a family. So we created the Joyce Steen Fund to support continuing education for practicing nurses at Norman Regional Health System.”

A graveside service for Joyce will be held Monday, May 9, 2022 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM at Norman IOOF Cemetery, Porter Ave, Norman, OK 73071.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.primrosefuneralservice.com for the Steen family.