After a long, healthy life, Joyce Arlene Baldwin died suddenly on July 28, 2024. Joyce was born in Barnes County, North Dakota, on August 20, 1930, to Gustav and Olga Adams. She was the 10th of 11 children and the last to leave this earth.
Joyce graduated from Noltimier High School. After graduation, she worked as a local telephone operator for Northwestern Bell Telephone Company in Valley City.
Joyce’s older brother, Ervin, also worked for Northwestern Bell and introduced Joyce to his coworker, Gene Baldwin. Gene and Joyce married on June 24, 1950. (Incidentally, Erv married Gene’s sister, Daisy about a year later.) Joyce and Gene celebrated their 63rd anniversary before he passed away in 2013.
She later worked as a switchboard operator at Bismarck Hospital from 1965 until 1992. Before she retired, she mastered the hospital’s switchboard conversion from analog to digital. Resistant at first, she even became pretty handy with a cell phone in her later years.
Throughout her life, Joyce’s greatest love was her family. She kept in touch with her siblings, in-laws, cousins, dozens of nieces and nephews, and many of their children.
Joyce continually fostered a growing extended family. Able to remain in her Bismarck home for over 60 years—thanks in large part to generous, caring neighbors—she established very close relationships with many neighbors. Her Bismarck church home, Trinity Lutheran, guided her faith and provided yet another source of lifelong, family-like friendships.
Joyce was preceded in death by her parents, husband, Eugene Roy Baldwin; six brothers, Ernest, George, Harvey, Ervin, Richard, and Marvin Adams; and four sisters, Clara Appel, Margaret McIvor, Ruby Risser, and Mildred Wright.
Joyce leaves three children, Bradley Baldwin, Nolan (Becky) Baldwin, and Rhonda (Robin) Conlon; two grandchildren, Aaron (Candy) and Tim (Allison) Baldwin; three great-grandchildren, Morgan, Westyn, and Magnolia Baldwin; and her in-town kids, Mike and Arlyce Malarkey.
Services will be held Thursday, October 3, 2024 at 10:30 AM at Trinity Lutheran Church, Bismarck with Pastor Martha HarriSon officiating. Memorial contributions may be made to the Trinity Lutheran Church Loaves & Fishes or Radio funds.