Joyce Marie (Anderson) Smith

Joyce Marie (Anderson) Smith, 76, passed away peacefully on Tuesday July 23, 2019, after an 18-month battle with leukemia. She was surrounded by family during her final days while resting in the comfort of her home overlooking Lake Pend Oreille.

Joyce was born on May 31, 1943, to Arlyn Leonard and Ellen Marie Anderson in West Point, Nebraska, both who preceded her in death. She grew up on the family farm where her favorite memories included making mud pies, picking mulberries, and playing with neighbor kids. Joyce cherished family time, visiting often with her grandparents and great grandfather who lived across the road. She loved the many camping trips she took throughout the United States with her parents and two sisters Kay and Jan.

She was a Girl Scout as a child and excelled academically in school, graduating from high school in 1961 as salutatorian of her class. Joyce attended Wayne State College for two years and completed her bachelor’s degree in geography and German at the University of Nebraska. She pursued graduate cartography courses at the University of Oregon.

In the summer of 1963, while working as a cook at Custer State Park Game Lodge in South Dakota, she first met her future husband, “Bud” Ashby Wade Smith Jr. A few years later, Joyce accepted a job at the Geological Survey working on the National Atlas project in Washington, D.C., near where Bud grew up, and the two started dating again. On January 15, 1967, Joyce and Bud were married in Rockville, Maryland, the beginning of 52 loving years together.

Joyce and Bud relocated to Lake Oswego, Oregon, and started a family. They had three children, Suzanne, Garrett and Gregory. The family road tripped in an iconic orange VW bus, camping throughout the Pacific Northwest and communing with nature. Their travels eventually brought them to a town they fell in love with: Sandpoint, Idaho. After living in Spokane, Washington in the early 1980s, they finally built their dream home on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille at Oden Bay in 1988.

Joyce was first and foremost a steadfast homemaker and stay-at-home mom, but she also worked 25 years as a part-time office administrator at Edward Jones.

She was well known for her open heart and generous hospitality. Joyce enjoyed international exchanges, whether as a pen pal during her childhood, an exchange student in Austria during college, a host mom while raising the family, or traveling abroad in her later years. Her other hobbies included gardening, reading, hiking, boating and cross-country skiing. Joyce was a dedicated volunteer, devoting herself to the Festival at Sandpoint, Women Honoring Women, the Panida Theater and her church.

She is survived by her husband, Bud; her children, Suzanne LaValley of Sandpoint, Idaho, Garrett (Celine) Smith of Colomiers, France, and Gregory Smith of Sandpoint, Idaho; her two grandchildren, Evanne Smith and Luka Smith, both of Colomiers, France; her sisters, Kathleen (Jim) Flaherty of Sandpoint, and Jan (Terry) Odle of Chatfield, Minnesota; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Joyce had an infectious smile and was passionate about entertaining. She was an excellent home chef and her gourmet meals, pies and cookies were food for the body and soul. She will be fondly remembered and sorely missed.

She asked that any donations be made to Bonner Community Hospice, 520 N. Third Ave., Sandpoint, Idaho 83864, 208-265-1179, bonnergeneral.org.

Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. on Friday, July 26, at the First Lutheran Church, 526 S. Olive, Sandpoint, Idaho. Flowers can be ordered through Nieman’s Floral, 208-263-3024.

Lakeview Funeral Home in Sandpoint is handling the arrangements. Please visit Joyce’s online memorial at lakeviewfuneral.com and sign her guest book.