Joyce Alene Kronholm, a gentle soul full of joy and warmth, died Wednesday, August 5, after a 10-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 80.

Joyce was born February 20, 1946, in Billings to Harris and Thelma Loggins. She earned a degree in education from Black Hills State College in Spearfish, S.D., and later earned a master’s degree in education from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va.

She taught at an inner-city high school in Richmond, where most of her students were poor and Black. Joyce thrived in that environment and formed such strong bonds with her students that, after school, a group of them would walk her to the bus stop to make sure she got home safely.

Eventually, Joyce decided to try her hand at teaching in Europe, ideally at a U.S. military base. With no job waiting for her, she flew to Europe and traveled from base to base, making cold calls in search of work. Although she never found the teaching position she hoped for, she made the most of the experience, traveling throughout Europe on her meager savings.

Joyce eventually returned to Montana, where she became an outreach counselor for the Florence Crittenton home. She also taught adult students and, under a federal program, counseled people who had not continued their education after high school but later wanted to resume and didn’t know how to begin.

In 1988, Joyce met William Kronholm at a dinner party with mutual friends. Almost immediately, they became inseparable. They married in 1989 in the living room of their Helena home.

For the next 37 years, they remained inseparable, traveling together to France, Italy, Greece and Turkey, as well as making multiple trips to Hawaii’s Big Island. Joyce also became an ardent camper and backpacker, and together they hiked throughout Montana, particularly in Glacier and Yellowstone national parks and in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. They also frequently cross-country skied in Yellowstone and the surrounding mountains.

Their adventures extended far beyond hiking trails. They rafted the Grand Canyon and the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, canoed the Green River through Canyonlands National Park, and backpacked the slickrock canyons of southern Utah and the wild coastline of Olympic National Park.

An amateur historian, Joyce researched, wrote and led the walking tours of Helena's Mansion District for several years. Bill and Joyce also were members of the Big Sky Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Helena, and Joyce served as its president for three years.

Joyce was preceded in death by her sister, Janice. She is survived by her husband, Bill; nephews Brian Gerke (Kathy) of Seattle and Kevin Gerke of Visalia, Calif.; sister-in-law Linda Kronholm of Manitowoc, Wis., and three grandnephews and nieces, as well as her beloved cats, Murphy and Abby.

Cremation has taken place. A celebration of Joyce’s life is planned for September, but a date has not been set. Memorials can be gifted to the St. Peter's Health hospice program, the Lewis and Clark Humane Society, or the American Civil Liberties Union.