March 19, 1926 — Dec. 30, 2022
Joy Cline Simonsen, 96, passed away at her daughter’s home with her family on Dec. 30, 2022. She was born March 19, 1926, to Mary Marguerite (Carman) Cline and Albert Guthrie Cline in Wendling, Ore.
The family moved back to Oklahoma in 1927, they experienced the dust storms and the depression for years and then moved back to Wendling about 1935. They lived in the Booth Kelly Lumber Camp.
At age 15, Joy’s parents bought a dairy on Simonsen Road where she met Leo Simonsen. They married on Nov 19, 1943, at the Cline residence. Joy moved to Oakland, Calif., where she lived with Leo’s sister, Jessie Tobias and her family, while Leo was overseas for two more years.
At the end of World War II, Leo and Joy bought his father’s farm on Simonsen Road. They had three children: Lonny, Linda and Karen.
In 1953, they moved to a 400-acre ranch in the Pleasant Hill, Ore. area. They used to say this was where “we really started living.”
In 1965, they sold the ranch and moved closer to Pleasant Hill until 1969.
About 1968, Joy enrolled in the first dental assistant program offered at Lane Community College. Joy interned for Dr. John Peterson in Eugene and he hired her after graduation. She loved the 10 years she worked for him but left when Leo retired so they could travel overseas and around the U.S.
Joy was very creative as seen in her designing and hand-sewn quilts and elegant clothes. Always had a beautiful flower garden and she refinished furniture with Leo. And she loved the sun! They lived in Eugene, Prineville, Coquille, Hawaii and Chehalis before returning to Eugene in 2000.
Joy was preceded in death by her parents, husband, and sisters: Carman, Helyn, and Colleen. The surviving family are Lonny (Amber) Simonsen; Linda (Hal) Ott; and Karen (Brad) Turnbull all from Eugene; grandchildren Brent (Kerry) Simonsen, of Shoreline, Wash.; Mark (Christa) Staley, of Lorena, Texas; Ann Staley, Olympia, Wash.; Aaron (Kristen) Turnbull of Springfield; and Stacy Turnbull, of Eugene. Great grandchildren are Callan and Monroe Staley; Jackson, Lucas and Natalie Bowers; Brody and Logan Turnbull; Ian, Ava, Alec, Owen and Oliver Turnbull.
Memorial is planned in a few months.
