Joe was born December 27, 1955, in Springfield, Missouri, to Raymond E. Young and Frances L. McCroskey Young. Joe passed from this life into Heaven on May 12, 2022.

Joe was predeceased by his parents, one brother (Jim Young), maternal grandparents (Jesse and Ella Mae McCroskey), paternal grandparents (Ernest and Eva Young), as well as several aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Joe is survived by his wife, Becky, a son, Jason Young (Elyse), daughter, Amy Kepley (DJ), daughter, Emily Lassiter (Jared), 12 grandchildren (Jacob Young, Lucas Young, Landon Kepley, Allison Young, Tessa Kepley, Lillian Young, Jayne, Gayle, Aurora Kepley, Rowen Lassiter, Darryl, and Kallen Lassiter). Further, Joe is survived by his sister, Linda Hodges (Frank), brother, Ray Young (Deana), aunts Betty Underwood, Nola Sharp, and Mary Lane, nieces Gina Martin (A.J.), Jamie Horacek, and Megan Keller (Kris). Joe is survived by father-in-law and mother-in-law, Jim and Diana Anderson, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, Bill Anderson (Debbie), Jonathan Anderson (L), Dan Anderson (Amber), nephews and nieces Stephen Anderson (Adrienne), Andrew Anderson (Elizabeth), Cory Anderson, Heather Nunez (Jonathan), Kimberly Hodge (Jesse), Rachel Shinkle (Jordan) and Natalie Anderson, Becky’s aunts and uncles, Karen Burt (Don), Craig Allman (Kathy), Deanna Allman, Richard Anderson, David Anderson (Judy), Bob Anderson (Joy), and Ron Anderson (Diane). In addition, there are many cousins, great nephews and great nieces. Joe loved Becky’s family as his own family and was always amazed that they loved and included him in the extended family.

Joe and Becky met in June 1972, began dating that same month and year, married October 11, 1975, and had been married nearly 47 years at the time of Joe’s death.

In 1979, Joe and Becky became parents. Joe dearly loved each of his children, Jason, Amy, and Emily. Included in his children are Elyse, DJ, and Jared. He was proud of their accomplishments, and enjoyed sharing personality traits, hobbies, and interests with each one. He was happy to share what he had with family, friends, and even strangers. Sharing included advice, assistance, and a listening ear.

Joe was known for being loving, sarcastic, witty, and reserving words and opinions. If Joe loved you, you knew it. He was a good observer and listener. If you asked for his opinion, you could expect to receive a forthright answer, delivered in a matter-of-fact manner. He learned to love Becky’s enormous and loving extended family with gatherings of 60+ people. He was content to sit quietly in a corner sometimes, to people watch. He loved his brothers and sister, and he was proud of his roots.

Joe had many talents, hobbies, and interests. He loved photography, and he had a phenomenal eye for detail and was fascinated with different perspectives and angles. He especially loved taking black and white photos. All three of his children loved, and learned from, his photographic talent. One of them said that their dad could tell stories with his camera. He gave away many of his prints to people who admired his photography. Joe was talented at woodworking and worked hard to learn new techniques to build furniture, creative turnings, and new designs for all of us. Our houses are full of his completed woodworking projects. Joe also enjoyed genealogy and tracing the past. He spent many hours working on genealogy trails for all sides of both of our families, extended family, and even strangers. Two outstanding moments included finding his great-grandmother’s headstone in a small family plot in a remote cow pasture, and another moment was when he found relatives of my grandmother. Joe learned from Becky’s mom, Diana, how to work on genealogy mysteries and how to enjoy the genealogy searches. They worked together on many of these trails.

Joe loved all types of music. He preferred listening rather than singing, but he could be heard singing softly whenever he thought no one was listening. He had a beautiful voice.

Joe was a voracious reader, beginning early in his elementary school days. By fourth grade, when he had read all the books in his classroom library, the teacher assigned Joe to read the entire set of the encyclopedias, and he literally devoured all the entries and remembered many details. The unabridged dictionary was next.

Joe also enjoyed traveling, whether it was a road trip to take photographs or search for dead relatives. He also enjoyed international travel. Four of his favorite international travels included two trips to the Holy Land led by Becky’s dad, Jim Anderson. Two other international trips included missionary building projects, through High Street Baptist Church, to Guatemala and Chile.

Joe was a loyal employee, working solely for Cox Health in the Radiology Department for over 47 years, retiring in June, 2021. He was passionate about radiography, especially Interventional Radiology. He wanted to help people who were in the hospital. He tried to be helpful and kind to every patient. He taught his kids to treat all people the same, from the janitor to the CEO, being respectful and forgiving. Joe enjoyed many coworkers during his employment at Cox. One special coworker affectionately called him her son or boss man, and Joe called her his other (third) mom.

Joe accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior at the age of eight at High Street Baptist Church, and he continued to be a member of that church until his death.

Joe was a loving husband, son, brother, dad, and grandpa. He was known as Grandpa Joe by his grandchildren, and he loved each one of them dearly and with his whole heart. He wanted to share more time with all of us, and like most of us, he had places to see, places to go, projects to build, books to read, music to listen to, as well as dreams and plans not yet made. Our family lost our best hero, husband, dad, grandpa, and our best example of how to live. His death has created a hole that can never be filled or fixed. No amount of time with Joe would ever have been enough. To know Joe was to love Joe. ”When my world is falling apart, when there’s no light to break up the dark, that’s when I look at you…” (When I Look at You, lyrics). “If you’re gonna’ love somebody, hold ‘em as long and as strong and as close as you can ‘til you can’t…” (‘Til You Can’t, lyrics).

See you again in Heaven. Fly high. We will always love you.

Contributions may be made to Cox Health Foundation P.O. Box 8131 Springfield, MO 65801-8131

Services for Joe will be Live Streamed on Zoom. Please be respectful of the family and  turn off the Audio and Video on your devices. Thank you.

Zoom Meeting ID: 810 1029 9078

Zoom Passcode: 982827