He was born in Kansas to Earl and Edith Roice. US Census records show the family living in Hotchkiss, Colorado by at least 1920, when Joe was thirteen. He grew up on a fruit farm there. He joined the military during World War II. While in the military, he met Lorena Tatlow, who was working in the Convair aircraft factory in San Diego. Together they had one child. They moved to Grand Junction, Colorado, where he worked for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad and then in as a "cat-skinner" in construction. While working for Schmidt Construction, he helped build a dam and Grand Junction’s Veterans Hospital. Together with his wife, he helped found the Roice-Hurst Humane Society.
Joe Burleigh is an artist featured in 2015-2016 Art aRound Town and who had artwork displayed in the Art on the Corner (AOTC) exhibit in Downtown Grand Junction.