Joanne Theresa Gorence

It is with sadness, coupled with the forlorn acknowledgment that our mother no longer has to suffer the indignity of a robbed memory, that my sister and I share the passing on June 8, 2024, of our incredible mother Joanne Theresa Gorence.

Joanne was born on November 20, 1936, on a dairy farm in Richland County, Wisconsin. It might sound like she was born much before that, but our mother actually attended a one room schoolhouse until she completed eighth grade. Because of her scholastic prowess, Joanne boarded with a family in Richland Center and attended high school "in the city." After that she was off to the University of Wisconsin - Madison and excelled for two years until her college years were interrupted by meeting our father, Robert E. Gorence. They met during the summer of 1955 while both worked at a famous Wisconsin "Supper Club" called Ishnala, which was in Lake Delton in the Wisconsin Dells area. The beauty of where they met created a lifetime conflagration of love and passion.

Our mother adored her husband and supported him and his career in every way possible. Joanne was a fabulous cook for every dinner when our dad would be coming home or when there was one of their endless dinner parties. Other than that, our mother made us independent and self- sufficient because the menu was pretty much limited to GYO (as in get your own). Our mother was incredibly loving and caring. Yet it needs to be said that every day at 4 o'clock, after having had coffee with her friends and oftentimes having played bridge or golf with other friends, the bells tolled and our mother went upstairs to shower, do her hair, put on her lipstick, and without exception her pearls, and get dressed in a very pretty dress and heels so that she could greet and give our dad a long kiss when he walked through the front door. My sister and I, although young, would look at each other and blush. It was a different day and a different time.

After our father's retirement, Joanne and our dad moved to Albuquerque and became the most incredible grandparents in the world. Our mother is survived by her two children, Robert, and Susan and her husband, John Davies of Melbourne, Australia. Joanne has ten grandchildren, some of whom live in Australia, three cities in Europe and all over the United States. She has five great-grandchildren. She is also survived by two siblings, her brother, John and his wife, Betty, and her brother, Joe.

Joanne embraced being raised Catholic and lived joyously with her faith. She wasn't necessarily spiritual, but she was fiercely devoted to Christ.

Joanne has been interred with her husband at the National Cemetery in Santa Fe. A Mass in her honor will be held September 28, 2024, at Saint Philip Catholic Church in Crawford County, Wisconsin. It will be the same church that Joanne was baptized, where she married her husband, and where her parents, two of her brothers, and many other relatives are buried in the parish cemetery.