Joy Bugbee

Our mom, Joy Mae Bugbee, passed away in the wee hours of Sunday, August 1, 2021. She passed away surrounded with family in the home she spent many years with her high school sweetheart, William M. Bugbee. She was born November 7, 1935 in the small town of Clinton, Iowa. In high school is where she caught the eye of William, “Bill”. They were married March 15, 1958. She obtained her degree as an RN. He got his PhD, and their lives took them from Clinton to Aberdeen, MD, St. Paul, MN, Portageville, Mo, Sikeston, MO, Harwood, ND and lastly West Fargo, ND. During those years they had four children, Pamela of Tacoma, WA, Brian of Vergas, MN, Will of Newnan, GA and Jennifer of Fargo and two grand-children William (Gee-J) and Zachary. Memories we have include mom coming from work wearing that now vintage nurse’s cap, taking out the bobby pins and setting the cap on the dresser. There were times she spent all day making jelly, freezing corn and beans, canning peaches, apples, mincemeat, vegetable soup, dill pickles plus so much more. She spent hours over the sewing machine making all kinds of treasures. We can also remember the times when she had to rip out a seam. We came to know that wasn’t a good thing. She traveled with a dear friend to fabric stores and amassed quite the stacks of material which still exists. She took on oil painting and many pieces are now in our homes. She helped with homework, made the best Easter baskets and treats for classmates for our birthdays. On Christmas Eve, she would play Santa’s helper while dad took us for a ride to look at Christmas lights. We always thought Santa had stopped by. In her 40s she got back into horse riding. We remember the remember the “to do” lists she left taped to the kitchen cabinets. A lot of groans happened over that. She was a great cook and always had white bread on the table for dad. As kids we had no idea what it took to make a scrumptious holiday meal. Now we do and hope she knows how much it was appreciated. Our mom read so much she had a recipe box with a card for each author and a list of all their books that she had read so she wouldn’t check them out twice from the library. That recipe box was full! How do we know this? One of us dropped it in a bookstore. That was a big uh oh. She was preceded in death by her parents, Catherine Matheson Bryant and Frank Bryant and her husband of 59 years, William (Bill). She was an amazing woman. We miss her and our memories will be with us forever. Her best friend at the end, Mattie, her 14 year-old toy poodle will miss her the most. Bye, mom. All our love. Graveside service held at 2:30 PM on Friday, August 6, 2021 at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Fargo.