JoAnn Turner

    JoAnn Turner, long-time Boise, Idaho, resident, passed quietly in her sleep during the early morning hours of March 28, 2023, at the home of her son Joe Turner, and her daughter-in-law, Lahoma Turner, where she received expert and loving care for the last seven years from them and granddaughter Hailey Turner. She now resides in her eternal home thanks to her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  
    Born on a beautiful spring day in Twin Falls, Idaho, on April 18, 1928, the third child born to Clyde and Fern (Fisher) Dudley, JoAnn was a child of the Depression and World War II.  From that period and experience, she learned self-sufficiency, developing a heart for helping others in need—or just to be kind. She had a great childhood with her brothers Orie and Richard Dudley and her “baby” sister, Barbara Dudley Quenzer.
    JoAnn attended Lowell Elementary, North Junior High, and graduated from Boise High in 1946.  Soon after graduation, she met a young sailor named Marvin Turner, just returned from the Pacific Theater of the war.  They married on September 20, 1947.  Together, JoAnn and Marvin built a solid family of two girls (Patrice and Pamela) and two boys (Ival and Joe).
    While Marvin built a career with Idaho Power, JoAnn did what wives and mothers typically did in the 1950s and 60s; she kept the house and made sure the children were clean, fed, rested and ready for school.  For JoAnn, her family always came first.  She loved making dresses for her daughters when they were younger.  She also helped them to get the store-bought clothes just right with modifications on her family-famous sewing machine when needed.
    Always known for making special gifts on birthdays or at Christmas time for family and friends, once JoAnn’s children began having children, and she became Gramma Turner, her true specialty was born, creating Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls.  She manufactured those dolls for over fifty years for grandchildren and great grandchildren, even children of her children’s friends, ones she hardly knew. 
    Gramma Turner simply liked doing things for others and received great joy when they expressed their appreciation for her artistry, whether dolls, gift bags or simple dish towels, and on special occasions, a painting.  She had a knack for making her family and friends feel loved and appreciated.
    JoAnn Turner is survived by a daughter, Patrice, and her son-in-law Gordon Petrie, of Emmett, Idaho.  Her sons Ival Turner and his wife Jodi and Joe Turner and his wife Lahoma, all of Boise, Idaho.  
    While Gramma Turner leaves ten grandchildren and nineteen great-grandchildren behind, each one has at least one special gift she made for them, topped only by the unconditional love she modeled for each throughout the time she had with them, from fifty-one years to seven months. Numerous nieces and nephews also survive, and they too, will miss Aunt JoAnn.  
    JoAnn’s beloved daughter Pam, who inherited Gramma’s artistic talents, predeceased her, as did JoAnn’s siblings and her husband of sixty-nine years, Marvin.

    There will be a service conducted by the Reverend Keith Reeder of Emmett’s Our Redeemer Lutheran Church (LCMS), at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery, Boise, ID, on April 6, at 2:00 p.m., followed by JoAnn’s interment next to her sailor.
       The family publicly thanks St. Luke’s Hospice for the wonderful care JoAnn received at the peaceful end of her sojourn here on earth, and suggests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to St. Lukes Hospice.  It’s a wonderful organization and worthy of support.
 

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