Laurel Beth Joyce, 45, passed away Tuesday in Arlington, Va.

She was born Sept. 4, 1963, in Xenia, Ohio.

Laurel was a 1981 graduate of Mars High School. She earned degrees in journalism from Indiana University (Bloomington) and Drexel University (Philadelphia). While at IU, she worked as a summer intern at the Butler Eagle.

She worked as a science writer in Philadelphia after receiving her master's degree, then took a job with Stanford University Medical Center (Palo Alto, Calif.), where she eventually became managing editor of Stanford Medicine Magazine.

Surviving are her husband and their two sons, 10 and 7; her parents, Reid and Beth Joyce of Valencia; one sister, Kathryn Stover and her husband Eugene of Valencia; one brother, Alan Joyce and his wife Kate Kobak, of Brooklyn, N.Y., and three nephews.

<B>JOYCE</B> — There will be no memorials outside the immediate family.Her parents have requested that donations in lieu of flowers or cards be made in her name to the National Brain Tumor Society by visisting its Web site at http://www.braintumorcommunity.org/give.