Joanne Elizabeth Bolton

To capture Joanne’s life in a sentence would be to say that she had a great commitment to life that revolved around her love of family; a dedication to work; and a strong Christian foundation. In later years Joanne faced a number of battles that would test her resolve during the difficult times that she faced. We are reminded of the passage from scripture that helps us to understand her will to overcome these adversities: “yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” Joanne’s family believes that it was this faith-based support that gave her the courage, grit and determination to battle the Stage 4 lung cancer she experienced in 2005 that gave her only a 15% chance of survival; the complex triple bypass heart surgery in 2010 where doctors reflected that she must have had an angel watching over her during this difficult procedure; and finally the return of her lung cancer in 2015.

Joanne was born at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington on January 28, 1949, to Bernard and Margaret Ruddy. Her brother Jerome remembered clearly that it was a cold wintery day with 4 feet of snow that was frozen enough that you could walk on it. She attended 8 years of elementary school at St. Pascals in Millwood, WA., and graduated high school in 1967 from the Holy Names Academy in Spokane, WA.

In her senior year of high school, she took on a part time job with the Rosauer Grocery store which also had a soda fountain/deli component within the facility. That is where Joanne was working when she met a guy name “Ken” who mentioned to her that he was working just across the street. With the frequent visits that Ken made during the work day to the store for soda and snacks, we can only surmise what Joanne’s thoughts were, but we’re guessing it went something like: either this guy has a great boss who allows him an unusual number of breaks during the day; or he has a metabolism that requires a great amount of soda and snack food; or he has something else in mind. Well, long story short, he had something else in mind as they quickly became inseparable companions and the relationship soon blossomed into a marriage proposal. To say that this relationship occurred quickly might be an understatement as Joanne graduated from high school in June 1967 and they were married on July 1, 1967, at St. John’s Vianney Catholic Church in Spokane, WA.

Joanne and Ken lived a short time in Spokane before Ken’s work moved them to Tacoma, WA. It was here that Joanne first expressed a desire to have a career that would in some way impact and help others. The path she chose was the health care field and she quickly completed the first step toward that goal by acquiring her LPN certificate.

After a short stay in Tacoma, the couple moved on to Salem, OR where she made a decision that she needed more than just the LPN certificate. She enrolled in Linn Benton Community College, where she completed the difficult 2-year RN program in one year.

Upon acquiring her RN certificate, the couple moved to the Portland area where she initially went to work for Woodland Park Hospital for a short time and then moved on to Kaiser Permanente where she provided post-operative and general adult care to her patients. As a sideline, it was at Kaiser that she met a young lady by the name of Ethel Gibney who would become her best friend and confidant for the next 37 years. Ethel and her husband Vern became close friends with Joanne and Ken and have many fond memories of their exploits together.

It was in the late 90’s that Joanne decided to explore other opportunities at Kaiser. In order to do so she recognized the need to further her education, so it was back to school at Concordia University, part time, where she participated in an accelerated program to achieve her bachelor degree. Upon achieving her degree, she applied for and became the leader of the Quality Assurance Care program where she remained until she retired in 2010.

Joanne had many other interests. One of her great loves was tennis as she and Ken joined the Glendoveer Racquet club where they spent many an hour in competitive singles and doubles play. Her dedication to the game was obvious to any of us who spent vacation time with her and Ken, as the racquets were always on the “must take” list when packing.

She also was fond of the game of golf which probably resulted from the fact that husband Ken is an avid golfer who encouraged her to take up the sport. He might have also given her some tips on the game which she was known to sometime accept or sometimes just ignore.

Another thing that Joanne loved to do was visit the casinos. You could bet that any travel destination would include an interim stop at a casino. She loved to play the poker machines and would not be adverse to playing for several hours or even all night. As some of us know, with gambling, there is a fine line between lucky and good but she was one of those accomplished players who had an above average tendency to win.

In her leisure time at home, Joanne enjoyed her garden which contained many species of flowers, her favorites being lilies and hyacinth. In looking at her garden, it is easy to see that she had a very talented green thumb. When she wasn’t gardening you might find her doing craft work or sewing. As a gifted seamstress she could be found many days in her earlier years making clothes for her daughters and grandkids or creating various fabric projects.

Joanne also had a gift for interior decorating, so you could expect, with Ken’s help, to see on a fairly regular basis a change in room colors, wall accents, furniture and maybe on occasion a room remodel.

She also loved shopping, particularly the consignment and craft markets in Palm Springs or any other venue. It would be a rare occasion that she didn’t find something she really liked and quite often, after the purchase, would be the question to Ken, how are we going to get this thing home, it won’t fit in the car or go in our airline bags. Ken always said that she did her part to help keep the economy moving.

Joanne is survived by her husband of 49 years, Ken Bolton; two daughters Kimberly Holloway and Tanya Bolton; one brother Jerome Ruddy; and four grandchildren: Bailey Holloway, Christian Baldwin, Paige Livengood and Gabriella Unger. While Joanne will be terribly missed by all of us it is a certainty that, with her foundational belief in Jesus Christ as her savior, she will be welcomed with open arms into her new home in Gods Heavenly Kingdom.