Joanne Bryan, 90, of Avon

Joanne Bryan (1934-2004). Services will be held at a much later date.

On September 27, 2004, Joanne Bryan, aged 90, was finally at peace.  She endured several serious illnesses in the last years including a debilitating stroke which robbed her of her ability to speak, which was doubly hard because she enjoyed visiting with people.  However, it did not slow her down much as she continued to talk and talk and talk.

Born in March of 1934 on her grandparents' ranch south of Pierre to Don and Helen.  Her first home was a farm in the Presho area at the end of the depression.  The farm failed three years running so the family moved into Oneida where Don and his brother-in-law, Mike Quimby started a gas station.  Joanne was an only child, so Mike's children (David Quimby (Georgia) and Ruth Ann Thornton (California)) became more like siblings than cousins.

Business was still slow, so Don applied to an oil company that wanted to open several new stores.  They elected to move to White River and opened a B Square gas station.  The business was primarily a bulk delivery service which provided gasoline throughout Mellette County.  As a result, Helen and Joanne (when she was old enough) ran the gas station while Don made the deliveries.  The building that housed the business was built by Joanne's Grandfather. It later became the Frontier Oil Company and remained that until Don and Helen retired.

Joanne completed all 12 grades in White River.  She was very interested in Music and learned to play piano and clarinet.  She also developed her skills in embroidery and crochet.  After graduation Joanne attended Yankton College where she studied music.

In high school she met her husband, Charles Edward Bryan.  The only child falls for one of eleven.  They were married in July of 1952.  It was one of the first large formal weddings in the area.  Her mother made her dress.

When they married, Charles had just completed basic training in Texas and was being stationed in Germany as part of the occupation forces.  Joanne was able to join him in Germany where they set up house with a German family and lived for a year.  During that year they were able to travel all over Europe.  Joanne's Grandfather was born and raised in Norway.  So, one trip was to Norway where they were able to see where her grandfather grew up as well as meet and visit with his family.

Baked potatoes were a favorite of Charles and Joanne.  However, the family whom they were living with did not want potatoes baked in their oven.  Joanne would sneak in and bake the potatoes.  No matter how she cleaned, they always knew when she had been baking.

Upon return to the States, Charles was discharged and went to work as a ranch hand in the White River area.  Their first child, Brenda Lea was born followed a year later by Bradley Eric.  Charles opted to return to college and complete his degree, so the family moved to Springfield.  M. Christine and D. Corinn were born during this time.  Upon graduation, the family moved to Menomonie, WI where Charles studied and received a Master's Degree in Education.  Joanne helped Charles by typing and proofing his work.  Armed with his degree Charles obtained his first teaching job in Niles Township in the Chicago area.  The family moved to Skokie, IL.  The kids were starting school.  Joanne continued to work as a housewife.

A year later Charles and Joanne decided to remain in the Chicago area and bought a new house in Hoffman Estates, IL.  In the meantime, Don decided Joanne should have her piano.  He was a friendly person and visited easily with customers stopping at the gas station.  One day a moving truck passed through, and Don learned the truck was traveling empty to Chicago.  They agreed to deliver Joanne's piano for free.  Off went the piano and time passed.  It was thought the piano was long gone but a couple of months later the doorbell rang.  The piano had arrived in Chicago.  Turns out that after leaving SD the truck got rerouted to California.  Several reroutes later the truck finally got back to the Chicago area.  It was always joked that Joanne had the most travelled piano.  From then on it was fun to listen to her play "Star of the East".

Then the opportunity arose to return to South Dakota.  Charles and Joanne opted to make the move.  Unfortunately, the commitment to stay in Chicago had required a new house with new furniture.  They decided to get out of debt before moving west.  Joanne went to work in an electronics switch manufacturing plant on the swing shift.  She drove alone nightly to and from work until just before the move.  Then the doorbell rang again.  It was a policeman.  He had noticed Joanne doing this drive nightly and felt it wasn't safe.  He waited for her every night, followed her home and made sure she got safely into the house.  This confirmed the move was a good idea.

The family was back in South Dakota where Charles was teaching Auto Mechanics at Southern State Teachers College in Springfield.  The kids were now all in school and Joanne had the opportunity to go back to school herself.  She completed her degree in Business Education.  The family all helped, especially in the science classes.  They all collected and pressed leaves and collected insects.  Some classes needed charts, tables or posters and help was provided (no Crickets available then).  She completed her degree but was unable to find work in the local area as the existing business teachers were well entrenched and far from retirement.  She went to work as a professional secretary on the Southern State Campus.

About the same time, Joanne's children were starting to go to college and chose to stay home and attend Southern State.  Sometimes this was a little too close for comfort.  If one of the children cut class, Joanne knew about it before the instructor did.  All her children's friends were frequent visitors or student employees of Joanne's office.  The friends tended to know more about Joanne than her kids.  The kids were involved in theatre and other activities so would arrive home after bedtime then had to get up for early classes and leave before Charles and Joanne got up.  Frequent conversations were "Is your mother sick?"  "Not that I'm aware of, why?"  "She's not at work."  "Really, I haven't seen her in a couple of days.  I'll have to run home and see".

Boating on the Lewis and Clark Lake was a major family activity during the summer.  However, Joanne was never very comfortable on the water.  She didn't swim but she made sure her children all did.  Avon had the only swimming pool in the area and offered swimming lessons.  The National Guard would take truck loads of kids to Avon for lessons.  Joanne didn't think this was particularly safe, so she opted to drive her kids to the pool.  Then decided that since she had to go along, she might as well take lessons too.  So, lessons were private family lessons.  When Brenda received her Life Saving Certification, Joanne announced, "The younger girls can now save themselves and you can save me".  Then the Springfield pool opened.  Charles and Joanne were big movers in the process of getting the Springfield pool built and opened.

Joanne was very supportive of her children's activities.  When the girls started 4-H she was very involved.  She taught them to do most needlework.  She didn't sew but found someone to teach the girls.  Above all she drove them to all contests, judging schools, training sessions, and everything else.  Unfortunately, demonstrations and public speaking were some of their major projects.  Joanne was uncomfortable making speeches and didn't understand why her family enjoyed it.  Brenda commented that she didn't have to get nervous before a presentation because Joanne took care of it.  However, Brenda soon learned that those nerves were essential to good presentations.  On her sixteenth birthday, Joanne drove her to the driver's license bureau saying, "now you can drive yourself and the younger girls to these competitions."  She was still in the audience for most presentations.

Brad was active in scouting and sports.  Joanne tried hard to be supportive.  She did well with scouting, helping him become an Eagle Scout.  However, sports tended to beat her.  Brad focused on wrestling and Tae kwon do. She cried through every bout.  Even if he was winning, she thought it was all too brutal.

Joanne was an active member of the masonic organizations.  She served as Guardian of Jobs Daughters when she was first in Springfield and then again when her daughters became members.

Joanne joined the Order of the Eastern Star in White River Chapter #126.  After settling in Springfield Charles and Joanne joined Rachel Chapter #11 in Springfield where she served in most offices including Worthy Matron.  In 1972 she served as Grand Adah in the Grand Chapter of South Dakota.  After Southern closed Rachel Chapter also closed.  Her membership was moved to Keystone Chapter #37 in Yankton where she served as Secretary for many years.  Finally, she her membership moved to Armour Star #64.  When Charles opted to serve in the Grand East of both Masons and Eastern Star, Joanne served as his Grand Escort.  Her crafting abilities were put to good use throughout these organizations' activities.

When Southern, then the University of South Dakota at Springfield, closed, Joanne found herself at loose ends.  She and Charles moved to Emmetsburg, IA where Charles continued to teach.  Attending auction sales had been a favorite past time of the couple.  They attended sales whenever and wherever the opportunity arose.  They collected many things.  Joanne's collections included salt and pepper shakers, hens on a nest, Fryware, silhouettes, furniture, and USD/S memorabilia.  One day when they were visiting from Iowa, there was a big sale in Avon which included a house.  On a lark they attended as there were some interesting teapots listed on the sale bill.  At the end of the sale, the couple was the proud owner of their current home.

They spent many weekends traveling between Iowa and Avon fixing up the house, attending sales to furnish the house, and enjoying themselves.  When work was completed, they retired and became residents in their new home in Avon.

In her community Joanne served on the Library Board to establish the Avon Public Library.  She was also Secretary Treasurer of the First Presbyterian Church in Avon for many years and was an active member of PBW.  In her later years she enjoyed watching church services on Facebook.

She is predeceased by her parents, aunts and uncles, 1 son-in-law, and 1 great granddaughter.  She leaves her husband Charles (Avon); her children--Brenda (Avon), Brad and Cathy (Missouri), Chris (Avon), and Corinn Harnisch (Yankton); 5 grandchildren--Becky (Minnesota), Janelle and Chris Satterwhite (Iowa), Curtis and Caroline Olsen; Justin and Kristine Harnisch (Sioux Falls), and Jason and Jacquline Harnisch (Nebraska); 13 great grandchildren; and 4 great-great grandchildren.