Joy Ranae Marcusen

March 21, 1933 – May 21, 2017

Sunday evening May 21, 2017, Joy Marcusen passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by family, lifetime friends and a loving caregiver, after an extended and valiant 25-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Joy was born March 21, 1933 at home to Howard and Elizabeth Fullmer in Price, Utah at the onset of the Depression. Life was hard in the barren lands of southern Utah and even harder for a coal mining family, so they eventually moved to Springville, Utah, where she attended Franklin Elementary School and met her lifetime friend Marilyn (Clegg) Hyer.

Springville was known as the “Art City” and Joy learned to have an appreciation for all things beautiful and elegant. Joy was a princess in the Art Queen festival her senior year before graduating from Springville High School. Like her mother, Joy was always very petite and what she lacked in physical strength and stature she made up for in fortitude and tenacity.

Joy married Duane Allen Marcusen of Leland (Spanish Fork), Utah Dec. 9, 1953 in the Salt Lake Temple. They had met at the Utah County Courthouse where they both worked. Duane also milked cows on his family dairy as well as custom farmed. The decision was made to uproot and move to George, Wash. in the heart of the Columbia Basin. One year later with Duane driving a snub-nosed Ford Truck loaded with farm equipment and Joy driving a black 1948 Pontiac car loaded with all they owned, they moved into a 35x8-foot travel trailer at Murphy’s Corner Trailer Court.

Joy and Duane were among those who pioneered the Quincy Valley during what is called the water years. They purchased 150 acres from the Bureau of Reclamation “Veterans Draw,” Farm Unit 32, Block 78. In 1955 they moved their little trailer out to the farm one mile south of George; it was there they welcomed their first daughter Mary Elizabeth.

Eventually they traded the original farm unit for FU 94 Blk 79 at the foot of Frenchman Hill on Beverly-Burke Road and moved into a Quonset that was left there when the Bureau of Reclamation had a camp during the development of the Basin. It was a mansion compared to the travel trailer and Joy once again set to making it a lovely home, and here is where they welcomed their second daughter Lisa in 1958.

Sandra, the third daughter, was born in 1961 in a blue Ford car on the way to the Quincy Hospital. It was always a family joke that Duane got credit for the delivery, but Doc Stansfield got the money for it. The fourth baby, Allan Duane, was born in 1965 on the day they broke ground on the new brick house beside the Quonset.

Joy would wash clothes in a wringer washer and hang them on a clothesline to dry only to have the wind blow them full of dirt. The newly created Basin was a harsh environment for a city girl, and the barren landscape, relentless windstorms and loneliness almost drove her to despair, but her resilience proved her strong point.

Joy was active in the LDS church and in her own words said “the Church was an anchor on which I grabbed hold.” Joy had an abiding faith in her Savior Jesus Christ. She was a loving, generous and compassionate person. She was active in the community with the annual Quincy Bazaar and, the Canal Day Celebration (now Farmer Consumer Days) and was instrumental in bringing the Wild Horse Monument to the hills across from Vantage.

Joy was a fantastic, or rather a fanatic housekeeper, Duane not so much. Joy always did things with style and grace her motto was “if it can be done it can be overdone.” Duane was a little bit rough around the edges and his motto, on the other hand, was “it is good enough for who it’s for.” Joy’s favorite pastime was shopping at Nordstrom and she was as much of a spendthrift as Duane was a tightwad. The family has determined they were a perfectly matched for each other.

Joy was preceded in death by her loving husband Duane, her parents and all her siblings Evan Wimber, Leon Wimber, Norma (Wimber) Haws and her younger brother Jay Fullmer.

She is survived by her children Mary Elizabeth Oler (Craig) of Spring, Texas, Lisa Marcusen Milbrandt (Butch) of Mattawa, Sandra Marcusen Hodges of Quincy and Allan Duane Marcusen (Linda) of George; nine grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

The Marcusen family is eternally grateful for all the loving service rendered by her longtime caregivers Leanne Fenn of Quincy and Tammy Veden of Ephrata, who for years attended to her every need.

Visitation will be held at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, 1101 Second Ave. SE, Quincy, Wash. on Tuesday, May 30, 2017 from 10–10:45 a.m. in the Relief Society Room. A celebration of life service will follow at 11 a.m. with Bishop Bruce Webley conducting. Dedication of the Grave will follow at the Quincy Valley Cemetery.

Please leave a memory for the family or sign their online guestbook at www.scharbachs.com. Scharbach’s Columbia Funeral Chapel, Quincy, is assisting the family with arrangements.