Joyce Botner

Joyce was born to Joel and May (Engen) Angen on December 16th, 1922 in Alexandria. During Joyce’s first year they moved to Minneapolis where her dad did carpentry work. From there they moved to Effie, Minnesota while Joel worked in a logging camp. Shortly therefter, they returned to the Garfield area for family and farming. During those years, Joyce was joined by siblings Helen, Ralph, Jean and the twins, Karolyn and Karen.
Music was an important of their childhood. From an early age, Joyce and Helen sang for family, church functions and an occasional contest. One by one, siblings became part of the music and that combined musical talent has bonded the Angen family throughout their entire lives.
Joyce enjoyed playing guitar, piano and accordion.
When Joyce started school, she spoke only Norwegian. She and her siblings walked to school in all weather conditions.
She was very good at baseball and would join the boys in the schoolyard. It was pretty unusual for girls to play baseball at that time. She did not lose this skill as she continued to play baseball or softball with all the young kids throughout her life.
While in school, she and Donald Syverson were in a Declamation Contest for English. She would practice in front of her siblings at home and as the story goes, those practice sessions were quite comical.
Joyce was confirmed at East Moe and, in spite of the fact that she had learned English, services were still conducted in Norwegian. Daddy taught Joyce to drive horses at a young age and raking hay with a dump rake was her first task. She said it was a challenge to time the lifting of the rake tines so that windrows would be in a proper line. She shared the horses seemed to demand a little bit more attention just as she was supposed to lift the rake!
While her mother was busy with the infant twins and to be helpful, Joyce attempted baking bread on her own. Later, Daddy shared that ‘perhaps she needed more practice’. Practice she got. Recently, it was estimated that, since her marriage, she had baked approximately 18,200 loaves. It may be fair to say that most everyone has had a slice or two. In addition, cinnamon buns and regular buns were quite standard.
For a summer, after completing school at District 54, she worked at the Wyweda family resort on Woman Lake. One of her experiences there was serving daily afternoon tea to an English couple. With the money earned that summer, she purchased a ‘Waterfall’ style cedar chest for $29.95 that still remains in the family.
When Joyce was seventeen, her parents enrolled her in the Morris School of Agriculture where she completed two semesters. She remembers Morris being a ‘pretty big town’ and was initially homesick.
She was captain of her basketball team and worked as a housekeepper to offset board and room.
After graduating from Morris, she worked at St Lukes Hospital in Alexandria along with sister, Helen. From her earnings, she bought a complete ‘Waterfall’ style bedroom set.
It was during this period, Joyce met her future husband Conrad at a dance in the Moe Town Hall.
On a cool, damp June fifth in 1943, in the middle of WWII, Conrad and Joyce were married at the West Moe Parsonage by Reverend Tjurnam (churn-em).
Dances were an important part of their social life throughout their marriage. Often they would come in from the barn, get all cleaned up, arrange for Grandma Lena to baby sit and off they would go!
Joyce became an involved partner on the farm.
Every morning of their married life, Conrad prepared and brought in a light ‘breakfast in bed’ to Joyce. This time was spent making plans for that day.
Conrad and Joyce started their family in 1945 with their first daughter Pauline. Colleen and Dan were soon to follow with Karri 15 years later.
When farming, Joyce especially enjoyed driving the Oliver tractors but balked at driving hay loads up a hill when the front end of the tractor would leave the ground.
She would rather have been doing barn chores or field work than be in the house or garden. With the knowledge of her mother-in-law, Lena, she became an excellent and inventive cook! She had the knack of creating meals in the spur of the moment.
In 1974 Joyce and Conrad built their retirement home in ‘The Woods’. For a time, Joyce was the Moe Township assessor. She was a snack shop volunteer at Knute Nelson, she played on a horseshoe team, did spinning and made rummagrut at the Douglas County Fair.
For several years she enjoyed working with her brother Ralph and, eventually, her nephew, Steve of Utopia Tours. This endeavor allowed her to see much of the United States and experience different aspects of the business. Many times she would ‘home sit’ for either Ralph or Steve while they were away on their bus tours. She took pride in looking after their homes and families.
After retiring from retirement, Joyce spent winters with her daughters and, when back in Minnesota, always kept busy with projects of any sort.
From 2000 to 2001 she spent an entire year helping her son, Dan, build his home. That help not only included being a right hand ‘man’ but meant bringing home cooked meals complete with red and white gingham table cloths to the building site.
Always a kid at heart and game for anything, She enjoyed…….
‘Attempting’ water skiing
Motor cycle riding
Nerf gun battles with the grand kids… (and some adults)
Driving boats
Driving a jet ski
Music and games with the grandkids
Tug of war with the family dogs
Having the opportunity, once again, to harness and drive a team of horses
Flying an airplane
Using a sling shot (and she was accurate)
Shooting a 22
Christmas Fooling (Yule a bokking)
Playing softball
Climbing ladders at Mesa Verde
Having fun on a playground slide as a great grandma
Driving a motor coach
Ice skating
Snow ball fights
Writing children’s stories
Instigating raw bread dough fights with the grand kids
Putting up wood
However… the two things she always talked of wanting to do but didn’t accomplish was driving a semi and race car.
Missing Joyce will not be isolated to her immediate family. She touched the hearts of all who knew her.