Joanne Lee Taylor, 78
Joanne Lee Taylor, 78, passed away on Thursday, July 23, 2009, with her family by her side in Bigfork.
The Depression wasn't even a year old when she was born in Alton, Ill., once described by Life magazine as a ramshackle river town. Joanne Lee Brown grew up in what she would call an unpleasant, abusive environment. Attempting to raise herself out of a lifestyle of ignorance, she would talk about how as a little girl she went to the library to check out books to learn proper manners, including how to correctly set a table.
While in nursing school in Saint Louis, she met a handsome man from the Coast. They ran away (from her parents and the law) and got married. Joanne graduated nursing school and they started a family. After Gene's medical school stint in Washington, D.C., Dr. and Mrs. Eugene F. Taylor Jr., and little Jimmy returned to the Bay area. Joanne worked as a registered nurse until Jonathan was born. She kept her hand in health care over the years, wearing nurse's whites to make appearances in her husband's office.
Joanne and Gene divorced and remarried in the 1960s, the Bay area remaining home for many years. There was a lot of travel which Joanne loved. There was a lot of church work which she similarly enjoyed. More than once the two combined; there was missionary work in Pakistan, rebuilding work in Alabama.
She loved to sing, and did so in San Francisco's Bach Choir and in more than one church choir. And she loved to volunteer, most notably with the Children's Home Society and Presbyterian churches in Lafayette and Oakland. Joanne didn't just volunteer; almost every organization she became a part of, from the Boy Scouts Mothers Club to the United Presbyterian Women, she joined, worked at it and ran it for awhile - it seems she became president of just about every thing she joined.
For years, every Friday meant serving up lunch in a food kitchen. Cooking in her own kitchen was a lifelong passion for Joanne, from those first Julia Child TV programs to the private lessons she took from a Chinese master chef. And whether it be Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas, more often than not, she served fiercely as the hostess for annual gatherings of the extended family.
When they moved to Montana a few years ago, Joanne and Gene parted again. Joanne joined churches, got involved; her social schedule was always full.
Fulfilling a lifelong dream, Joanne got up on stage in a couple of community theater productions. Again, she volunteered. Again, she enjoyed worldwide travel. And again, she made friends by the dozen. She liked to say these last were the happiest years of her life.
Over the years Joanne fought three bouts with breast cancer; each time aggressively battling the disease into remission.
Joanne is survived by her former husband, Gene; her sister, Janet; her two sons, Jim and Christine, and Jon and Alison; and grandchildren, Leah, Jesse, Kate and Laura.
In lieu of flowers or anything else, the family asks donations be made in Joanne's name to a local cancer caregiver or hospice group.
A memorial service is being planned for late August in Bigfork.
Johnson-Gloschat Funeral Home and Crematory is caring for Joanne's family. You are invited to go to www.jgfuneralhome.com to offer condolences and sign Joanne's guest book.