Obituary for Joy Litts Gaarde

Joy Litts Gaarde, formerly of Mount Vernon and Paradise Valley, AZ, died Sunday morning, June 29, 2025, at Cottage Grove Place in Cedar Rapids. She was 94. A celebration of Joy’s life will be held on Wednesday, July 9 from 11:00 to 1:00 in Sedlacek Hall at Cottage Grove. A buffet lunch will be available.

Joy Litts was born Sept. 14, 1930, in a 19th century farmhouse just off Springville Road two miles north of Mount Vernon, the daughter of Kenneth and Inez Bebee Litts. After a few years on the farm the family moved into town, where they ran a grocery store on Main Street Mount Vernon. Joy, her parents, and her older brother Bill lived above the store. Her parents bought their groceries from a wholesale grocer located in the building that is now the Black Sheep Social Club in Cedar Rapids. The building had a circular slide for sending groceries down from the upper floors. Joy occasionally got to ride the slide down with sacks of flour or other groceries. With both of her parents busy running the store Joy had quite a bit of freedom at a young age. She called herself a “Main Street brat” and knew all of the old “characters” of Mount Vernon.  

A good student throughout her youth she credited “four years of high school Latin with Geraldine Hughes” as the best part of her education. She was a gifted vocalist, speech student, and thespian at Mount Vernon High School and was a member of the class of 1948.

After high school graduation Joy enrolled in the one-year secretarial program at the American Institute of Commerce (AIC) in Davenport. When that training ended the president of AIC hired her to be his secretary. In 1948 an accounting student named Harry Gaarde arrived on campus. Harry had grown up in Clinton and had been assigned at the end of World War II to the accounting department at Hamilton Field in California. He worked on the postwar project of issuing final pay to soldiers returning from the Pacific theatre.

It didn’t take Joy and Harry very long to realize that they were soulmates. They were married December 27, 1949, in the Mount Vernon Methodist Church. The newlyweds lived in Davenport while Joy continued to work for the college president and Harry completed his accounting degree. They roomed in an attic apartment in an old house on Brady Street and remained friends of the German immigrant couple who owned the house for years. 

Harry took Joy on a trip to San Rafael, California in an attempt to persuade her to move there, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave Mount Vernon and her parents. Daughter Sara was born in December of 1951, and she crawled around the floor while her parents built a small town accounting business in their home. 

Like many families, Harry’s father had lost his business during the Depression and he never got completely over it. Harry was determined to be successful in business and Joy was his perfect partner in doing that. They eventually bought Schoff Construction Company in Lisbon and developed housing areas in Solon, Lisbon, and Mount Vernon. They also were the original investors in The Sun, a new weekly newspaper started in Mount Vernon. In 1976 Joy became the publisher of The Sun, and daughter Sara became the editor, probably the first and only mother daughter publisher-editor team in Iowa. 

In 1978, Joy and Harry bought a retirement home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, where they had enjoyed vacationing for several years. They planned to work a few more years and then move to Arizona. That plan changed in the spring of 1981 when Harry was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. They moved to their new home in Arizona that summer.  Harry died in Mt. Vernon on June 2, 1982, at the age of 55. 

Joy decided to continue living in Arizona, but to come back to Mt. Vernon to spend the summers, since she had a new grandchild, Catherine, born in December 1982. Joy owned the building on Main Street where the Lincoln Wine Bar is today, so she moved to the upstairs apartment there. She was back to living upstairs on Main Street! Catherine became Joy’s summer occupation, and they spent many happy days together in their own little window on main street. 

Back in Arizona for the winters, Joy knew she would have to take the initiative to make new friends for herself. She did just that. The first new friend she made was Loretta Armijo, who worked as a manicurist at the Mountain Shadows Resort beauty shop. That led to Joy meeting Loretta’s large extended family (all fabulous cooks) and they all became good friends and still are many years later, even though Loretta has also passed away. Another great friend of Joy’s who is still living is Braulio Moreno, who worked in the neighborhood as a gardener and handyman. He looked after Joy’s house in the summer and drove her car back and forth to Iowa twice a year. 

Joy also met some famous people in Arizona over the years. She frequented the Mountain Shadows Resort fitness center where one day she was working out on a stationary bike. Casual conversation with the man on the adjoining bike led to him saying, “I bet you don’t know who I am.” Joy replied, “I bet you don’t know who I am.” He laughed and said, “No I don’t, who are you?”  “I’m Joy Gaarde,” she said, “who are you?” The man replied, “I’m Ernie Banks.” They became workout buddies. She met Mohammad Ali at his birthday party in a local restaurant. She met Sharon Osborne at the grocery store, and one day Sharon introduced her to Mrs. Alice Cooper. One evening, Joy was out for a walk when she encountered a neighbor who said to her, “I’d like you to meet my friend, Margaret Thatcher.” Joy’s favorite was meeting Bob Hope. She and Harry were eating dinner at El Charro across the street from their home when a waiter came to their table and said that Bob Hope would be arriving and the restaurant hoped the other diners would respect his privacy. Hope came in wearing a plaid sport jacket identical to Harry’s. He came over to Joy and Harry’s table and said, “Where did you get that jacket?” Harry said he’d bought it in Iowa. Hope said, “The guy I bought this from in California said it was the only one in the world.” 


About 12 years after Harry’s death Joy met Richard “Joe” Morton, a widower from Ames, at the Sutliff General Store when they were each there for lunch with different groups. Joe had graduated from Cornell College after the war and worked there in fund-raising shortly after graduating from Cornell University’s hotel school. He always loved Cornell and Mount Vernon and was back visiting. Joe and Joy started dating and in 1996 they were married at the Palisades-Kepler State Park, with Sara as her mother’s matron of honor. Joy and Joe spent the winters in Arizona at Joy’s place and the summers at Rice Lake, Iowa, where Joe had a house.  Joy and Joe had friends and interests in common. They were both good golfers and great dancers. They both loved jazz music. They were both gregarious people. Joe and his first wife Pat had taken several trips using Grand Circle Travel and Joe wanted to continue traveling with Joy for as long as their health would allow. They took several trips to Europe, including one that had them above the Arctic Circle and another where their ship caught fire in port (everyone got off the boat safely). Joy’s favorite was their trip to Greece. Joe passed away in 2015 after suffering from Parkinson’s disease for several years.  

Joy made the decision to move into Cottage Grove Place in 2013. She was happy there until her health started to suffer and she lost sight in one eye. The family would like thank everyone at Cottage Grove who cared for and befriended Joy over the years. Every one of you mattered to her. Thanks also to St. Croix hospice. In the end Joy’s passing was peaceful.

Joy is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Sara Gaarde and Rich Hileman of Mount Vernon; her granddaughter Dr. Catherine Schierbrock and husband Bill of Davenport; her two beloved great grandchildren, Harrison and Caroline Schierbrock; and her niece, Cindy Joy Litts of Denver, CO.