Remembering Joyce Miller Semple | Aspen Daily News
October 10, 2024
Joyce Miller Semple, an Aspen resident of 40 years, died peacefully in her sleep at her Los Angeles home on Sept. 20, 2024. She was 93.
Born on Oct. 8, 1930, to Dorothy and Tommy Miller, Joyce was raised in Los Angeles. Her first official title was president of the Lone Ranger Fan Club, reflecting her lifelong love of horses. She attended Marymount College and was a proud member of Kappa Kappa Gamma at UCLA. After graduating with honors, Joyce hosted a weekly fashion show on KTTV. She went on to work in casting and publicity, especially enjoying the accounts of pianists Billy Barnes and Lee Liberace.
In 1962, Joyce married writer Lorenzo Semple Jr. Joyce, and Lorenzo didn’t let the births of their three children, Johanna, Maria, and Lorenzo III, interfere with their love of traveling. Johanna was born in Mexico; she and Maria spent their early years in Spain and Amsterdam. Joyce and Lorenzo resettled in Los Angeles when Lorenzo, a TV and film scriptwriter, hit it big with the television series, “Batman.”
In 1974, longtime friend Katherine Thalberg — who’d just moved from Los Angeles to open Explore Booksellers — urged Joyce and Lorenzo to check out the hidden jewel of Aspen. Joyce and Lorenzo rented Stein Eriksson’s house on the corner of Hopkins and Second, intending to stay for only one summer. They settled in the West End and stayed four decades.
Joyce embraced the Aspen lifestyle right out of the gate, skiing on her purple Trucker skis, cross-countrying around the golf course, picnicking at Difficult, hiking the Bells, and learning to fly fish from Chuck Fothergill. She was known to float Stillwater on a two-man raft. One beautiful fall, she called Thalberg, who told her they were going jeeping up Aspen Mountain. Joyce wanted to go, but all the jeeps were full. Lorenzo gave Joyce a credit card and told her to take the bus down to Glenwood and buy one, which she did — a red CJ-7, which she loved driving around town.
Joyce’s perennial gardens were the envy of all, bursting with peony, columbine and lupin. Her love of plants led to her to open the Jerome Jungle, a plant shop in the Hotel Jerome. Lorenzo had an office in the adjacent building behind the Jerome until the Aspen Volunteer Fire Department torched it, to his delight, for a training exercise.
Always known for her meticulous eye, Joyce kept her cars immaculate and was a fixture at the AABC car wash. She ran a tight ship and kept all of Aspen’s top service providers such as window washers, tree trimmers, landscapers, awning-fixers and dog groomers on high alert. She ran her empire from the desk in the kitchen with her Rolodex and an iron fist.
Joyce came truly into her own as a doyenne of the Aspen art scene. She loved classical music and volunteered to design and tend the planters outside the Music Tent. She’d go to Sunday concerts with a trash bag in her purse and could be seen walking the grounds after everyone left, picking up trash. She welcomed the music students into her home for an annual barbecue to kick off their summer. Joyce was director of publicity for the Aspen Film Festival. It was she who came up with their slogan, still used today: “Independent by Nature.”
Her true love was the Wheeler Opera House. She served dutifully as the president of the board of the Wheeler Associates. She worked alongside Bob Murray, who she absolutely adored, to aid in the grand 1984 renovation. Joyce applied her PR acumen to the Wheeler’s events, and loved conspiring with Stewart Oksenhorn at The Aspen Times. Always one to think big, Joyce was responsible for booking such acts as Lilly Tomlin, Spaulding Grey, Moses Pendleton, Maria Benitez, Faith Hill, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Harry Connick Jr. and Stomp, among others. Many of the artists would even get an invitation to one of Joyce’s legendary soirées.
Joyce was a divine cook, and her dinner parties always boasted a rotating cast of colorful Aspen characters such as Patricia Moore, James Salter, and Tukey Koffend. Wine flowed freely and most seemingly innocuous weeknight dinner parties devolved into disco-dancing revelries carrying into the wee hours, to the chagrin of her children sleeping below. The faint melodies of “Disco ’Round” by Alicia Bridges can still be heard in the wind over North Street.
As a regular at Takah Sushi and Gordon’s restaurants, Joyce also held a soft spot in her palate for the Woody Creek Tavern, Hickory House and the old Char-burger in Basalt.
Alas, the winters here became too arduous and Joyce returned to Los Angeles. There, she lived her final chapter happily, going to the opera, symphony and St. Monica’s every Sunday. But her heart was always in Aspen. She read both newspapers on a regular basis and was looking forward to her ultimate return.
Joyce will be buried at the Aspen Grove cemetery where her husband Lorenzo has been warming the bed for her. She is survived by her sister, Susie Bradstock; her children, Johanna Herwitz, Maria Semple and Lorenzo Semple III; and grandchildren Laszlo Herwitz, Edith Herwitz Lochner, Jude Herwitz, Poppy Meyer, Patrick Semple and Oliver Semple.
For those who remember and love Joyce, there will be a gathering at the Jerome Bar on Friday, Oct. 11, at 12:30 p.m., which also may devolve into a disco-dancing party. Come join us and raise a glass to a true Aspen original.