- Date Of Birth: March 11, 1931
- Date Of Death: December 23, 2016
- State: Idaho
Still playing her cards close to her chest and looking for the word for 7-down, Joanne Galbraith passed peacefully on Friday, December 23, 2016 with her intellect and humor intact, but body spent. Her life began March 11, 1931 in Long Beach, California as the daughter of Leland and Catherine Brack. She completed elementary school in Butte, Montana and attended junior high and the first years of high school in Coeur ‘d Alene, Idaho. Following her Father’s goal she obtain an elite woman’s education, Joanne graduated from Annie Wright Seminary in Tacoma, Washington in 1948, but drew the line at attending an eastern women’s college, thank-you very much, finishing her matriculation at Pomona College in Claremont, California in 1952 with a degree in bacteriology. Her medical technology training was at Wayne County Hospital in Detroit, Michigan.
Joanne married Graeme C. Galbraith on January 23, 1953 in Coeur d’ Alene. She worked as a medical technologist in Las Cruces, New Mexico while Graeme served his military posting at White Sands Proving Grounds. Joanne started her second career as a domestic engineer after son Allan was born in February, 1955. Son James was born February 1957 in Seattle, Washington while Graeme worked for Boeing. The family moved to Idaho Falls in May, 1957, where Graeme was an engineer at the Naval Reactor Facility at “The Site”. Joanne returned to her medical technology career in 1967 at Sacred Heart Hospital, becoming the director of the laboratory, then the combined labs of Sacred Heart and the LDS hospital. She then opened and directed the laboratory at what is now the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center when it was in the middle of potato fields and Sunnyside Road was two lanes with no stop signs. Joanne retired in 1989.
Joanne was active in PEO (presiding officer of all 5 chapters); Eastern Star (twice Worthy Matron of Henrietta Chapter No.
