Joanne Burleson peacefully passed away in the Sidney Health Center Extended Care Facility Sunday February 1st to join the Lord in heaven. Joanne was born to parents Louis LaPlant and Helen Retzlaff on September 1st, 1942, the fifth of seven children on a farm near Jessie, ND. The family later moved to a farm near Binford, ND. She graduated in 1960 from Binford High School where she was a cheerleader and sprinter, the only options available to athletic-minded girls at the time.
In 1962, she and her brother Don headed to Montana where she worked in Helena for Fabulous Fabrics and at the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park. She returned to ND to attend Valley City College obtaining her bachelor’s degree in Music Composition in 1967. While on break she attended a fateful dance at Red Willow Lake, where she met a tall and handsome drummer named Blaine, who successfully faked a fuel shortage to gain her full attention by bumming a ride home while earning a permanent place in her heart.
They married March 6th,1965 with Blaine working as a teacher and administrator in small schools around North Dakota while Joanne cared for their two young boys, Mike and Steve, eventually settling in Glendive, Montana in1970, shortly after giving birth to twins, LaDonna and Nicolle. Her career as an educator included thirty years as a music and physical education teacher, primarily in Glendive, MT. Later in her professional teaching career, she obtained her Masters degree in Elementary and Secondary Educational Administration (1994) working as the director of the Migrant Education Program from 1994-May 2005, after retiring from the Montana Public School system in 2002. She then commuted to Pretty Eagle/St. Labre (near Ashland, MT) to teach at a private school, and also drove to Lodge Grass, where she provided assessments in the school.
Joanne spent her time loving her family first, but she was also known to charm new friends with her pleasant, likable and inquisitive nature. She liked animals in general but especially loved her family’s thoroughbred horses that she exercised in preparation for races in surrounding small towns. She was a multi-talented person who worked hard landscaping, arranging beautiful planters, improving the backyard to create a safe haven and cheerful place for her children and grandchildren with the Badlands as her backdrop and the kids’ playground.
One of her greatest joys was spending time with her grandchildren hosting tea parties, roasting marshmallows by the fire, soaking in the jacuzzi, camping, walking or hiking the Badlands, faithfully attending sporting events, and lovingly passing down her cooking skills. She and Blaine engrained a deep love of music in their family by accompanying them on the piano, guitar or ukulele, and of course using their lovely voices to fill the house with song. She had a remarkable knack for decorating and home projects, completing intricate tile work, as well as her own electrical and sheetrock repairs.
After the loss of her partner of 53 years, she made her new home with her daughter LaDonna and son-in-law Mike Garneau in Sheridan, Wyoming for the last 5 ½ years. During this time, she found great joy in gazing at the Big Horn mountains, watching the chickens in the back yard, spotting deer and other wild life, and soaking in the sunsets she lovingly called the “Magic Hour.”
She is survived by two sons, Mike Burleson (wife Kimberly), Steve Burleson (partner Tammy), daughters Nicolle Larson (finance Richard), and youngest LaDonna Garneau (husband Mike); two Sisters, Sharon (Robert) Fors, and Darlene Quam; one sister-in-law, Martha (Dolar) LaPlant; grandchildren, Seterra (Travis) Riggs, Sawyer Burleson, Stone (Morgan), Sunny & Shane Burleson; Sean (Nisha) Larson, Eric (Abby) Larson, Conner, Bridger and Cassidy Larson; Mecallen, Meccade, Morgan Garneau, and Madison (Chase) Krivickas; one great granddaughter Amelie, and many adoring nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her mother and father, Helen and Louis LaPlant, husband Blaine; brothers Dolar, Darrel and Don LaPlant, sister Beverly Kelly, brothers-in-law, Bernie Kelly and Gordon Quam; a sister-in-law Bunny (Darrel) LaPlant; son-in-law Woody Larson; and granddaughter Jade Larson.