Joyce Lund

Joyce Stella Lund passed away on April 18, 2023, at the age of 93. She was born on Oct. 11, 1929, in Benge, Washington, to Dick and Marion Parish. She was the oldest of four children, having two brothers and one sister. She attended Benge Elementary School and graduated from Washtucna High School in 1948. Joyce grew up in Benge, far removed from today, in a house with no indoor plumbing and a wood stove for heat and cooking. She learned to garden, cook, sew and can and, being the oldest sister, helped to care for her younger siblings. She worked in many different jobs throughout her life, from being switchboard operator out of her home to working summers cooking for the wheat harvest crews. She married Ralph Lund, a dairy farmer from Benge, on May 18, 1951, and lived at the Lund dairy until 1964, when they moved to Othello, Washington and Ralph became an alfalfa farmer. Together they had a son, Eric Anders Lund, in 1954.