Horman was born in
Owatonna,
Minnesota, the daughter of Vernita (
née Sauke 1923–2010) and Arthur "Duffy" Hamren (1921-2010). Her paternal grandmother Marie Hamren (1890-1985), was born in
Iowa to
Norwegian immigrants. She has one brother, Jerome Hamren. Her parents owned and operated a grocery store in Owatonna called "Duffy's Superfair". She graduated from
Owatonna Senior High School in 1962 and then graduated from the
University of Minnesota. In 1964 while on break from college she traveled to
Europe with a friend, where she met her future husband
Charles Horman. They teamed up together and traveled around
Europe. Joyce graduated from college and moved to New York City, where Charles was originally from, and they were engaged in 1968. Soon they moved to
Santiago, Chile, where Charles, a freelance journalist, had accepted a job. The couple was living in Chile during the
1973 Chilean coup d'état, a military takeover of the government. Her husband was kidnapped and tortured before being killed. Initially Joyce did not know what had happened to Charlie. Her husband's father,
Edmund Horman, flew to
Chile after learning of his son's disappearance, and Ed and Joyce along with their friend, Terry Simon, fought the local political regime for several weeks for information on what happened to him. In 1977 the family began work on a wrongful death lawsuit against the United States for their lack of help in investigating Charlie Horman's murder. ==Later life==